Nathan Cleary has publicly thanked Mary Fowler after the Manchester City forward returned to Australia to be with him during his recovery from major surgery. Cleary, the injured rugby league player, posted a series of photographs on Instagram on Sunday evening showing the couple’s time together in recent days. The post confirmed why Fowler had withdrawn from the Matildas squad.
Fowler had pulled out of the Australian squad for what was previously described as “personal circumstances”. She has been spending time with Cleary in Sydney. Cleary suffered a broken left leg in Penrith’s NRL preliminary final defeat to Newcastle and also underwent surgery on his right foot to correct a stress fracture. The 28-year-old requires a wheelchair for mobility.
In his Instagram message, Cleary wrote: “I simply do not have enough space in this caption for the amount of nice adjectives I would use to describe Mary Fowler but this woman is the absolute best!” He added: “I can’t thank you enough for flying to the other side of the world to look after me and be by my side during this past week of recovery. I’m a very lucky man and so, so grateful.” Fowler responded that she was “very lucky” and said “it’s easy to look after someone when they’re a big cutie patootie”.
Matildas coach Joe Montemurro had addressed Fowler’s absence before the team’s match in Karlsruhe. “It’s really important that we create an environment that is important for the player, and as the circumstances are private I’m not going to elaborate,” Montemurro said. “But yes, absolutely, discussions were had with Mary, with the club, and with the relative people, and we believe that we’ve made the right decision and I think everyone’s in support of the situation.”
Without Fowler, Australia lost 4-2 to Germany in a friendly. They quickly fell two goals down and, despite bringing the score back to 3-2 in the latter stages, could not complete a comeback. Fowler will also miss the Matildas’ friendly against Haiti this week in France. Midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross was also left out of the squad for the Germany match as she continues her return to top-flight football after the death of her mother in July.
Fowler had earlier posted a photograph of herself with Cleary and his dog Prince while supporting Cleary’s teammate Liam Henry, who was fundraising for Parkinson’s on Saturday. She was also shown on Instagram helping to re-tie Cleary’s medical boot and massaging his thigh. Manchester City’s next WSL match is in seven days against Brighton.