Adelaide United has been dealt a double blow ahead of its grand final re-match against Melbourne on Friday night with Paul Reid and Michael Marrone both ruled out for a month.
Reid strained his vastis medialis muscle (located at the bottom of the quad) in last Friday night-s win over Central Coast, while Marrone underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair damage to his lateral meniscus in his knee.
Despite battling through injury for much of the season, Reid has still started five of the Reds’ six matches in the heart of the midfield.
Coach Aurelio Vidmar admitted it was a risk playing the 30-year-old in the opening match of the season but one that he needed to take given the shortage of midfielders available at the time.
“With ‘Reidy’, we always knew we were taking a risk with him, throwing him in a little bit early in Round 1 because we knew he wasn-t quite cherry ripe,” Vidmar said.
“But we had to take that risk because we had no central midfielders, so unfortunately it has caught up with him again.”
Marrone pulled up sore at the team’s recovery session following the match with the Mariners, and a scan revealed that the young defender would need a minor operation before resuming.
“It-s disappointing. There is nothing you can do about Michael Marrone, those things happen, so we-ll just have to make do with what we-ve got,” Vidmar said.
However, in a much-needed boost, Alemao has been given the all clear to play in the blockbuster at Hindmarsh Stadium, despite suffering a fractured nose last week.
Midfielders Fabian Barbiero and Kristian Sarkies are also close to returning, although Vidmar won’t be rushing the duo back.
“We-ll see how he (Barbiero) finishes off this week because it is only the second week he-s trained with the group so he won-t play this week,” he said.
“And Sarkies, if he gets through this week he should have some game time with the Youth Team on Friday so that-s a really positive sign for him.”
Currently in fifth place on the ladder, Adelaide will be searching for back-to-back wins for the first time this year against the defending champions, who find themselves in eighth place with just one win on the board.
