Matildas veteran Tameka Yallop faces an anxious wait for scan results after suffering a hamstring injury that threatens her run into the Asian Cup, now less than three months away.
The 34-year-old midfielder broke down in the first half of Brisbane Roar’s 3–1 win over Adelaide United on Sunday, clutching at her right hamstring — the same leg she severely injured last season, which kept her sidelined for six months. Reduced to tears, Yallop punched the turf in frustration as staff assisted her off the field.
Yallop underwent scans late Monday, with results expected by tonight or Wednesday morning. Given the timing and her importance to the national squad, Brisbane Roar and Football Australia’s medical teams are set to collaborate on a recovery plan that keeps her Asian Cup ambitions alive.
Matildas coach Joe Montemurro will be hoping for the best, with Yallop considered one of the side’s few natural line-breaking midfielders. She joins Mary Fowler, still out with an ACL injury, on the list of key players under injury clouds ahead of the tournament.
Despite her recent setbacks, Yallop had been steadily rebuilding form and minutes for Brisbane and made her return to the national side in the recent friendlies against New Zealand. A stalwart of the Matildas setup, she was part of the squad that lifted the 2010 Asian Cup as a teenager — a moment she is eager to replicate on home soil.
“I would love to lift that trophy again, and to do it on home soil with people actually watching would just be a whole new level,” she said in October.
Australia opens its Asian Cup campaign against the Philippines on March 1 in Perth.
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