Former Manchester United player John Curtis is confident he has overcome a calf injury and is ready to make his Hyundai A-League debut for the Gold Coast this weekend.
Curtis has yet to see any competitive action for the Gold Coast since joining the club in the off-season but he is likely to be included in Miron Bleiberg’s squad for Sunday’s home match with the Melbourne Victory.
“It seems like I’ve been here for ages and not actually played any games,” Curtis said.
“I’ve been looking forward to my first match and I’m just glad that I’m in contention to be selected this week.”
“My calf is fine now and I’ve been training fully on it for nearly two weeks so I’m happy to say that it’s all behind me. I’m glad no risks were taken with it and I’m seeing the benefit of that now.”
“I was probably touch and go for the Wellington game and maybe could have played at a push, but again, it wasn’t a risk worth taking as there is a long season ahead.”
“When it first happened I tried to come back too quickly so I’m glad I’ve had a couple more weeks to get the injury completely healed and I’m desperate to play now.”
Curtis said he has been pleased so far with the standard of the competition from what he has seen over the first three weeks of the season.
“The competition is definitely strong technically and there are some very good players here. The standard is high, there’s no doubt about that; it’s been very exciting to watch,” the 31-year-old said.
“It’s a bit difficult to judge the level when you’re watching games from the sidelines or on TV so I’ll have more of an idea once I actually play, but the league looks pretty tight at the moment and from what I have seen, any team can beat another on any given day.”
“I’m sure the ladder will sort itself out a bit by the time we reach round seven or eight and we’ll know who the strongest sides are. We just have to make sure we’re one of them and that starts with building on what was a good performance against Wellington.”
