Melbourne City coach Rado Vidosic has revealed Socceroos star Jamie Maclaren is battling a broken toe as the injury-hit Isuzu UTE A-League leaders limp their way to the international break.
Maclaren had a penalty saved as Aiden O’Neill’s brilliant brace salvaged a 2-1 win over Brisbane at AAMI Park and wasn’t his typically sharp self.
Vidosic was unsure whether Maclaren, who has had limited training and injections in his left small toe, would join the hamstrung Mathew Leckie in missing the friendlies against Ecuador.
“Obviously with Leckie and Jamie in doubt, with a broken toe, we don’t know who else will be in there,” he said.
“He’s got a broken pinky. So he’s been carrying that for the last several weeks.
“I mean, he’s been fantastic for us. But I don’t know how serious (it is) – you can see today he was struggling a little bit. So we have to wait and see how he feels tomorrow and then we’ll go one day at a time with him.
“I can’t tell you how he’s feeling every minute but it’s definitely affecting him and if you’re carrying an injury like that and you do this over several weeks, obviously, there will be some kind of discomfort and questions that he’s asking himself.”
Vidosic admitted that as with Andrew Nabbout (knee), City would rest Maclaren if they had more personnel available, but was uncertain whether the striker would need to miss any A-League Men or national team games.
“Look, it’s up to Graham Arnold and his medical staff but we are looking after him,” he said.
“He’s not training every day and we are looking after him as much as we can.
“He played with injections and today we tried without injection.
“He was involved in the game very, very well. He contributed a lot. But you can see he’s still feeling some discomfort and pain in his left foot.”
City bounced back from their humbling 4-2 defeat to Adelaide, and now sit six points clear of the second-placed Reds.
O’Neill scored a wonderful long-range goal to open the scoring in the 22nd minute but Jordan Holmes denied Maclaren’s penalty late in first-half injury time.
Brisbane’s Jay O’Shea equalised from the spot in the 80th minute, before O’Neill salvaged all three points with an 88th-minute flick header at AAMI Park.
The midfielder’s fine season has prompted talk of a post-season reunion with Patrick Kisnorbo at France Ligue 1 club Troyes, while Vidosic hopes it will deliver a maiden Socceroos call-up when the squad is named on Tuesday
“He has had a fantastic season,” Vidosic said.
“The whole year he’s been unbelievable, I think fully deserves a call-up for the Socceroos, I hope he’s going to be selected in the in the final 23 or whatever they’re going to call in.”
O’Neill’s late heroics left a staunch Brisbane to rue what might have been.
“They’re a fantastic team,” said Brisbane interim coach Nick Green. “They have been for a number of years now. They’ve got some fantastic players there.
“However I felt we probably deserved something from the game.”
REACTION: ‘Meat and potatoes’ City midfielder steps into the spotlight with brilliant brace in Roar win
