Simon: 'I would tell myself, it's not going to be an easy road'

Kyah Simon's frank and insightful Q&A session with young fans gives a sense of perspective on the Matildas' veterans journey so far.

"I would say to myself, it's not going to be an easy road and to keep on pushing to the goal that you want to achieve and the direction that you want to go in," the striker told one teenage fan.

“It was a goal of mine from an eight-year-old girl. When I was a couple of sessions in, I went home to my Mum and Dad, and I said, ‘I want to play for Australia one day.'

"Don’t let anyone tell you that you can't do it, because ultimately, you have that decision within yourself.”

Simon has surged back into the Matildas reckoning to once again become a star of the star-studded team after a long injury lay-off.

Her deep-runs and attacking midfield control in the team's Olympic qualifiers, in particular, have made many wonder how the Matildas played without her as a pivot.

But while Simon's 92 caps and 26 goals seem to tell her story - that of a dynamic, insatiable world-class forward - they don't even come close.

Simon first broke her leg at just 15. She would go on to suffer shoulder, knee and ankle injuries and she's still only 28.

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“[It] might not be an easy road, they'll definitely be setbacks, but it'll all be worth it when you wear the green and gold jersey, in the in the short future," Simon continued.

“Having such a difficult setback to deal with at such a young age, I think was really difficult,” she said.

“I think the one thing that really stuck out to me was having that perseverance, resilience and that determination to want to get back to playing the sport that I love.”

“Everyone's going to come over setbacks and face effects I think in their life in general. If you keep persisting, if you love it that much, you really got to do what you love, and keep pushing on.”

She also offered her insight to the mother of a teenage footballer, on how to make that key decision that will inevitably rule their life.

"There's always a social component to football, obviously playing with your mates," she said.

"I think for your daughter, it's a matter of deciding "do I want to go to a professional level and play elite football or am I just happy to play socially with my friends?"

"There's no right or wrong answer. Football is so great from that aspect. You can play at a professional level and an elite level, or you can play just socially on the weekends, with no aspirations to play for the Australian team."

"You can still be doing what you love and playing football, so I think it's really up to the individual."