The 25-year-old has been a regular in the national women’s football team since 2008, but this year’s games will be the W-League gun’s maiden appearance at an Olympics.

Matildas coach Alen Stajcic expects the former W-League player of the year to be a vital cog in his side’s quest for a medal, a venture looking more and more likely after the Australian women rose to number five in the world rankings.

They’ll face Germany, Canada and Zimbabwe in the tournament’s group stage.

“We’ve shown in the past 12 months or so that we’re a competitive team now on the world stage and it’s up to us now to prove that we can take that next step and genuinely compete for medals,” Stajcic said.  

“We are in a very tough group with Canada being the reigning bronze medallists, Germany are a powerhouse and Zimbabwe are a bit of an unknown but having come through the African qualifiers we know they will be tough, powerful and unpredictable.”

With the continuing increase in depth in Australian women’s football Stajcic admits it was a tough decision to arrive at the final 18 player squad.

“Probably for the first time in this team’s history we are leaving out players that are in good form who could genuinely play and start in this side,” he added.

“We’ve got to a point where there is a strong amount of depth in the team meaning good players miss out.”

The side will now head to Brazil where they will head into camp and play their final match in the lead-up to the Games against host nation Brazil on 24 July.

The Australian side will be the first to compete in the green and gold at the 2016 Games when they take on Canada in Sao Paolo on August 3, two days out from the Opening Ceremony. They will then face world number two Germany in Sao Paolo (August 6) and world number 93 Zimbabwe in Salvador (August 9).