Matildas World Cup chances on life support as Sam Kerr looms large for Canada

The attacking stocks were extremely low for the match against the Super Falcons, exemplified by Clare Polkinghorne being brought on to win the game in the last 10 minutes of regulation time with Alanna Kennedy moving up front.

To be fair, Kennedy did score in the end, but that's really far from the point.

A win against Nigeria would have meant Australia would have had the luxury to not have to rush back their star players, but now, it will be do or die.

Read more: Losing to Nigeria was a disaster, but can the Matildas recover?

Tony Gustavsson said before the match against the world no.40 ranked team that he would not make a decision on his captain until a day before the game and Fowler will all but certainly return from her concussion suffered in training.

The coach said before the second group game he had no regrets over picking Kyah Simon following her nearly year off from the game due to an ACL injury.

Yet to play a part in the Cup, will she come into the side against Canada?

Matildas captain Steph Catley identified their lack of ability to finish off chances as one of the main reasons for the loss against Nigeria.

"We're extremely disappointed. It was a massive opportunity for us that we let slide," she told Optus Sport.

"We created a lot of opportunities that we could have finished. Some of those go in and it's a different story. A lot of things [went wrong]. We forced the ball going forward a bit. We weren't clinical enough.

"That's something we'll look at. We've got to move on as quickly as possible."

Meanwhile Matildas coach tony Gustavsson - who came under a lot of criticism for his lack of pace in his subs - said the team still did well in the absence of his usual attackers.

"We were always going to focus on the players that we had available," he told Optus Sport.

"We scored two goals and have really good attacking sequences. We were really dangerous on set plays."