Matheson paying it forward

Seven weeks after having surgery to repair a torn knee ligament, Oakville native Diana Matheson is on the road to recovery, and hopes to be back on the pitch in time for this summer’s World Cup. We spoke with Matheson Monday in Toronto, at a soccer clinic for some future stars.

Diana Matheson is leaving the fancy-footwork to her fans these days. She’s still recovering from a knee injury, that threatened her chances of playing in the 2015 Women’s World Cup, which takes place here in Canada: “It was in a game against Japan on October 25. The way you always do it, I was off balance, planted, knee went in, twisted. I’m optimistic, obviously ACL is a long recovery but I have every intention of being there in June.”

Her physical involvement in his clinic is limited because of her injury, but Matheson says some of the most valuable lessons she can share with these girls have little to do with on-field training.

Matheson: “It’s about letting them know that we got cut too, we didn’t make teams and we were willing to work hard and that’s how we made the national team.”

The 30 year-old Oakville native has been an integral member of the national women’s soccer team for almost 12 years. At the London Olympics, she netted the winning goal in Canada’s 1-0 victory over France to win the bronze medal.

She says connecting with future Olympians is an essential part of her job: “We all try to, it’s important to… leave that legacy, because we know it had a big impact on us growing up, to see a national team player, which was a lot more rare those days. So we’re trying to connect with as many kids as we can to get to know our stories a bit.”

The next chapter in Matheson’s story will begin on January 16th. That’s the date she’s scheduled to re-join the women’s national team in Vancouver, as they begin their final training session before this summer’s World Cup.