Western United defender James Donachie is facing a three-match suspension following his red card in his side’s 2-0 Isuzu UTE A-League win over Newcastle Jets.
John Aloisi’s Western kept their first clean sheet of the season in a morale-boosting triumph against the Jets at AAMI Park in Round 17, however, the victory was soured by Donachie’s late dismissal for a challenge on Brandon O’Neill.
Donachie – an A-Leagues champion with Melbourne Victory in 2017-18 – was initially shown a yellow card for his tackle on the Newcastle captain in the 90th minute, but it was upgraded to red following a VAR review.
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Football Australia’s independent Match Review Panel (MRP) has proposed a three-game ban.
The MRP deemed the 30-year-old committed the offence of “Assault on a Player (e.g. violent conduct when not challenging for the ball) or against any other person other than a Match Official, including an attempted Assault“.
The minimum sanction for the offence is two matches, being the mandatory match suspension plus one additional match.
Already suspended for Tuesday night’s showdown with Melbourne Victory, Donachie is also set to miss fixtures against Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory.
Meanwhile, there are four players who will miss a single match for an accumulation of yellow cards.
Western will also be without captain Josh Risdon, who picked up his eighth yellow card of the campaign, while the Central Coast Mariners will miss Jacob Farrell and Christian Theoharous, and Macarthur FC will miss Clayton Lewis. They will serve their suspensions this weekend.
