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Matildas to go all out in France send-off game

The Matildas will field their strongest possible line-up against France as they attempt to charge into their Women's World Cup campaign.

Australia face the world No.5 in their send-off game in front of a sellout crowd at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on Friday night, six days before their opening group match against Ireland.

Coach Tony Gustavsson flagged he'll heavily rotate his team, who will kick a ball in anger for the first time since beating England in April.

Striker Kyah Simon is unlikely to feature while other players, including Clare Polkinghorne, Alanna Kennedy and Tameka Yallop, will be on limited minutes.

"It will be a good indicator of the starting line-up but also the finishing line-up (against Ireland)," Gustavsson said.

"I've always talked about that -- it's also about the game changers.

"The one thing that will be different is because it's a send-off game and the last friendly before the World Cup, I'm also going to consider any type of niggles and minutes played -- because it's all about the Ireland game.

"If this was a quarterfinal, I would probably treat game time and players differently. So you will see some adjustments according to that.

"So if you're surprised that maybe a player has a phenomenal game tomorrow and I take her off at half-time, it's going to be different, right?

"We're also going to have that approach that we want as many players as possible to get some game minutes."

The send-off against a top nation looms as perfect World Cup preparation.

"There's going to be testing some things," Gustavsson said.

"There's going to be throwing some curveballs out there for oppositions to deal with, come the World Cup, but then also have consistency in what we've done and believe in what we've done for years now."

Simon, the squad's shock inclusion after rupturing her ACL in October, was the only player absent from Thursday's training.

"She's still not ready to play many minutes but we're working on an individual plan for her and we selected her as a game changer," Gustavsson said.

"I would say we most likely won't see her tomorrow because she's on a long-term plan for us."

The crowd should be in excess of 50,000, a new Matildas record on home soil -- though it will be quickly surpassed by around 80,000 fans in Sydney next Thursday.

"Tomorrow you're going to think 'woah, this is incredible' and then have in the back of your mind next week it's going to be double this," Matildas and Lyon defender Ellie Carpenter said.

"So that just gives me goosebumps, talking about it.

"But I think it's going to be preparation mentally for us. I don't think many of us have played in (front of) more than 50,000 or 60,000 people.

"So it's going to be taking it all in, soaking it all in."