Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson says he will handle Sam Kerr with care during the upcoming Olympic qualifiers in Perth as part of a plan to heavily rotate his jet-lagged team.
The Matildas squad has trickled into Perth over the past few days, with Kerr among a host of stars who only arrived on Tuesday.
With a large chunk of the squad arriving late, it meant Wednesday's training session in stifling Perth heat was the only chance the team got to train together as a full unit before Thursday night's clash with Iran at HBF Park.
The Matildas will then take on the Philippines at Optus Stadium on Sunday, before facing off against Taiwan at HBF Park next Wednesday.
Kerr is still building back to full fitness following on from the calf injury that heavily impacted her World Cup campaign.
The hometown hero will be the star attraction during the three sold-out games in Perth, but just how much action Kerr will see remains to be seen.
"I think all of us would love to play Sam Kerr in 90 minutes every game," Gustavsson told media in Perth on Wednesday.
"But we've always said we want to have a healthy high performance culture in here with a player-centric approach.
"Considering she's coming back from injury very recently, she hasn't played 90 minutes in a very, very, very long time. Not for club either with that calf issue.
"We need to be extremely mindful. As I did in the World Cup, I'm going to go by recommendation with my (sports science sports medicine) team.
"They are our experts in this field and they work very closely with Chelsea, because it's (about) the total load over time.
"I think we can expect to see some rotation in this tournament so we don't overload her with minutes.
"Is it starting (and then) taking her off? Is it having her on the bench and bringing her on?"
The temperature surpassed 30 degrees during the Matildas' closed training session on Wednesday.
The heat combined with the late arrival of players meant Gustavsson's preparation with the team has been heavily impacted.
"When you have 10 players training today that arrived last night with jet lag - today's session was a very different training session," he said.
"Mentally and physically there's very little you can do, so most of the preparation happens in meeting settings like this and then you transfer that onto the park.
"We've had one training session going into this tournament - with jet lag.
"And that means maybe initially in this tournament that there can be some rusty performances.
"And then with three games in short succession, it also means that we're going to rotate a lot in the roster because of the physicality and the well being and the protection of the players.
"So don't be surprised if you're going to see much more rotation in the roster this tournament than you did in the World Cup."
