Sam Kerr’s court case on charges of racially aggravated harassment has been delayed until February 2025. The Matildas and Chelsea striker was due to appear at London’s Kingston Crown Court on Monday in a bid to have the criminal charges thrown out. However the presiding judge has cancelled her preliminary hearing, ruling it was “no longer needed”. Kerr must now wait until 3 February to fight the charges. The 30-year-old did not play the second half of the English Women’s Super League season, due to a badly ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injury. But she joined Chelsea’s celebrations overnight as her team won the championship for a fifth successive year with a 6-0 win over Manchester United. The injury has seen the Matildas talisman miss Australia’s AFC Women’s Olympic qualifiers series against Uzbekistan in February 2024 and will keep her sidelined for the upcoming friendlies against China on May 31 in Adelaide, and June 3 in Sydney. With no timeframe for Kerr’s return to football, doubts were growing she would contest the 2026 Asian Cup to which Australia was awarded hosting rights this week. Kerr is facing charges of intentionally causing “racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress to a police officer” after a night out with teammates in London in january 2023. According to documents filed by Kerr’s legal team with Kingston Crown Court in early April, Kerr will assert she did not intend to racially abuse the officer on the night in question. Her legal team is intending to argue an abuse of process by crown prosecutors after it took a year for her to be charged.