Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson had meticulously laid out a plan in concert with his sports science team on the long-awaited return of Sam Kerr.
After a series of meetings in between the 4-0 demolition job of Canada last week and Monday night's knockout clash against Denmark, Gustavsson and his team had decided it was safe to use Kerr as a second-half sub.
The skipper was brought on with the game virtually safe at 2-0 with just 10 minutes left in normal time.
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Just minutes later, one moment sent flutters through the Australian camp and showed that even the best-laid plans can blow up in an instant.
Kerr, having found herself under a high ball inside the box, slipped as the turf under her feet gave way, causing her knees to bend awkwardly.
Gustavsson, the 75,784 fans in attendance, and the millions watching around the world held their breath before Kerr got back up and continued playing.
Following his side's professional win over Denmark, Gustavsson admitted he'd have to wait and see on whether Kerr was hurt after the awkward slip.
"I got very nervous," he admitted.
"I didn't see the slip until she was on the floor, but when I saw that obviously I was like 'Ooh', and straight away communicated with her (asking), 'How are you doing? Do you need to come off?' and she wanted to stay on.
"Hopefully that means she's OK but we're not going to jump to conclusions here. We'll respect the process and check in on her and see how she feels and get my experts around me once again and do a review."
Kerr, for her part, downplayed the incident when speaking to reporters after the match.
Gustavsson was full of praise for his medical team, who have dealt with injuries to Kerr and Mary Fowler during the tournament as well as nursing several Matildas stars to full health in the lead-up to the tournament.
"Those decisions are big," he said on the call to give Kerr some minutes against Denmark.
"That takes a lot of talks, a lot of communication, a lot of talking with my experts around me and the support team.
"What the sports science and sports medicine team have gone through in this tournament is just unreal.
"To get Allanah (Kennedy) back to where she is considering the last six months ... EvE (Emily van Egmond) and Mary (Fowler), the same thing. They've dealt with concussions, they've dealt with Sam.
"We had a lot of meetings, a lot of talks with Sam. When do we use her if we use her?
"Maybe she needs some minutes to mentally and physically get ready for the next game, but that means a risk as well."
Kerr's successful return, pending how she recovers from her awkward slip, has given Gustavsson a welcome headache, with the likes of Fowler, Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso firing on all cylinders up forward in the absence of their star skipper.
The Matildas coach admitted that seeing her team thrive without her "helps Sam".
"It's important that if the team should be really successful you can't rely on one player, and I do not say this out of disrespect for Sam ... but Sam coming back now is a good thing in the sense that we don't need to look at her taking over and having everything on her shoulders," he said.
"It's a team effort and a team tournament and it's the cream on the cake.
"It also means the players are challenging me now and the decision making because I've got more than 11 players that deserve to start."
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