Sam Kerr is staying at Chelsea, having agreed an extension to her contract, which was set to expire in the summer.

The Australia forward will miss the remainder of the season after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament on a mid-season training camp in Morocco but the news that she is staying is a huge bonus for Chelsea, who will lose their coach, Emma Hayes, to the US women’s national team in the summer.

Kerr joined Chelsea midway through the 2019-20 season and has scored 99 goals in 128 games for them. Since recruiting the talismanic Kerr, who missed most of her home World Cup in 2023 with a calf injury, Chelsea have secured nine trophies, winning the league four times, the FA Cup three times and the League Cup twice.

The 30-year-old has also won the Golden Boot twice, was runner-up to Spain’s Aitana Bonmatí at the Ballon d’Or awards last year and finished second on the Guardian’s list of the top 100 female footballers in 2023 after being third in 2021 and 2022.