Sonia Bompastor is delighted to have Sam Kerr available for Chelsea’s Women’s Super League opener against Manchester City, but she knows patience will be required following 20 months out for the Australia star.

Kerr ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in January 2024, missing the second half of Emma Hayes’ final season with the Blues as well as Bompastor’s entire debut campaign.

The forward’s most recent Chelsea appearance came on December 20, 2023, in a 3-1 win over Hacken in the Champions League.

She returns to a Chelsea side that won a domestic treble last term, adding the FA Cup and League Cups to their sixth successive Women’s Super League crown.

Chelsea scored 56 goals in the WSL last season, a noticeable drop from the competition-record 71 they managed in 2022-23.

In fact, that tally was their lowest in any full campaign (excluding the shortened 2019-20 season) since Kerr’s 2020 arrival (also 69 in 2020-21, 62 in 2021-22, 66 in 2022-23).

Since Kerr made the move to England, she has scored 58 WSL goals. Only Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw, with 62, has netted more often in the competition in that time.

Kerr is in line to make her return when Chelsea welcome City to Stamford Bridge for Friday’s curtain-raiser, but Bompastor is aware she may need time to get up to speed.

“Yeah, Sam Kerr is in the squad, so she will be involved in the game,” Bompastor told reporters. “We don’t know if she will start or not, but she is in the squad.

“She is in a good place, she has been training well, she’s physically in a good position. She’s also mentally in a good position, she’s one of the players everyone wants to see on the pitch.

“It’s nice for me also to have her in the squad with her leadership, her experience, but at the same time, she’s been away from the pitch for a long time.

“I think we need to still be patient with her, and that’s normal for her not to be at the best level yet, but hopefully she will soon. That’s already a good step for her, to be in the squad.”