Michelle Heyman

Matildas striker Michelle Heyman thought it was all over in 2019. Injured, stressed and out of love with the game, she had announced her retirement from all levels of football.

Growing up in Shellharbour, on the NSW South Coast, Michelle made her debut in the W-League (now A-League Women) for Sydney FC in 2008 after starring in the Illawarra competition. She then moved to the Central Coast Mariners, where she won the golden boot and the first of two Julie Dolan Medals as the competition’s best player.

Most of her domestic career, however, has been spent at Canberra United, where she won another golden boot, won the premiership in 2013-14 and 2016-17, and also the grand final in 2014.

Michelle made her Matildas debut in 2010 in a friendly against North Korea. Her first major tournament was the 2014 Asian Cup, where she started in all but one match. She also went to the 2015 Women’s World Cup, scored in the shootout that the Matildas ultimately lost to Brazil in the quarter-finals of the Rio Olympics in 2016, and then went to another Asian Cup in 2018.

But that’s where things started going wrong. She hurt her knee at the Asian Cup and missed selection for the 2019 Women’s World Cup. And after 61 caps and 20 international goals, she retired, declaring her body could no longer cope with top-level football.

Later she admitted what she really needed was a mental break from the game – so she stepped away altogether, sitting out the 2019-20 W-League season.

In her break she recharged her batteries, did a lot of pilates, got her body right and rediscovered her hunger for the game. When she returned to Canberra United in 2020-21, she was better than ever, becoming the W-League’s all-time leading goal-scorer.

Michelle scored 10 goals in her comeback season, nine in the next one, then 12. So when Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson needed a striker for Olympic qualifiers against Uzbekistan in February 2024 after Sam Kerr suffered an ACL injury, 35-year-old Michelle was the obvious choice.

It was as if she had never been away. In the first leg, in freezing conditions in Tashkent, Michelle was one of three scorers in a 3-0 win. Five days later in Melbourne, she scored four in a 10-0 demolition of Uzbekistan that ensured Australia’s place at the Paris Olympics.

“I needed that break. And it’s OK to have a break,” Michelle said. “It’s OK to come back at 35 and have some fun out there because I know I can still do it.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Michelle and the Matildas faced Germany, Zambia and the USA in a tough Group B.

A tournament-opening 3-0 loss to Germany was followed by a dramatic 11-goal thriller against Zambia, in which Michelle's 90th minute goal capped the Matildas comeback from 5-2 down to a 6-5 win. Facing a must-win scenario against the USA to stay alive, the Matildas' tournament ended on another 3-0 loss.