Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar says Subway Socceroos forward Mathew Leckie’s exact return date is still unknown as the club deals with a raft of injuries before their opening game of the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season.
Battling a quad injury sustained earlier in pre-season, Leckie has officially been ruled out of Saturday’s Round 1 clash away to Newcastle Jets and head coach Vidmar remains unsure as to when his star man will be available for selection.
“Probably three or four weeks ago I’d say,” said Vidmar when asked when Leckie actually sustained the quad injury.
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“So look, he started training again this week, in a modified sense, so he’s probably a couple of weeks away.
“We just have to wait and see. I would say, round two, round three, potentially (but) I’m not sure. A couple of weeks.”
The injury to Leckie comes as a major blow for both club and player given the 33-year-old endured a disrupted 2023-24 season.
Managing just 12 Isuzu UTE A-League matches last term, Leckie found himself sidelined after suffering knee ligament and hamstring injuries respectively.
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To further complicate Melbourne City’s preparations ahead of the new campaign, young striker Max Caputo is also unavailable for the contest after undergoing surgery earlier in the pre-season to repair a syndesmosis injury and fractured fibula.
“We’ve got a couple of options up there,” said Vidmar when asked just who will lead the line for his side in round one.
“Between Andy Nabout, Arion Sulemani played there through the pre-season and young boy Medin Memeti has also played there throughout the pre-season.
“Obviously the latter two are quite young and inexperienced so Andy’s probably going to be our best option there for the moment.
“But when Lecks (Leckie) comes back, Lecks has got the opportunity to play there as well. Yonatan Cohen can also play there. So that central role, we’ve got a fair bit of cover until Max gets himself 100% fit again.”
To make matters worse for City, the club also revealed earlier this week that youngster Jayden Necovski will miss the entire season after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee.
Furthermore, midfielder Alessandro Lopane is also recovering from surgery following a patella injury sustained earlier in pre-season and isn’t expected to be back until midway through the season.
City head into the new campaign off the back of a sixth-placed finish last season in what was Vidmar’s first campaign in charge of the club.
Taking over from former coach Radio Vidosic after he was sacked before Round 3, Vidmar believes both he and the club will now benefit from having had a full off-season together.
“Pre-seasons are extremely important. I think I came in in round two I think it was last year, after a preseason. So it’s very difficult to change things.
“So the beauty of having these last four months, we’ve been able to do a hell of a lot of tactical work, get structures right, expectations, behaviours, all those sorts of things that we instilled at the beginning of the pre-season.
“Then, obviously you get those sort of hiccups that you have with injuries. Obviously, we’re not the only team that’s gone through that through the pre-season and then foreigners who are coming in late and not really conditioned.”
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Standing in City’s way on Saturday evening are Rob Stanton and his youthful Jets side.
Without last season’s top scorer Apostolos Stamatelopoulos following his off-season move to the Scottish Premiership, the Jets have put their faith in a series of young talents up in the Hunter region but Vidmar doesn’t believe they’ll be a soft touch.
“Newcastle are very, very well coached with Robbie Stanton. Yes, it’s his second year as a senior coach, but you can see what he was doing last year and I think him having another pre-season under his belt is going to make them stronger,” Vidmar said.
“It’s never been an easy game in Newcastle, anyway, regardless of where they are, whether up the top or or at the bottom.
“We’re in really good shape. The mindset is excellent (and) has been throughout the pre-season, we we have not missed a beat in terms of expectations and our attitude towards our training sessions.
“We probably had, I think I recall two sessions where we were absolutely rubbish, but I’ll take that any day, over a pre-season (of) four months.”
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