Brazilian midfielder Amaral could be a big inclusion for the Glory’s first home fixture against Newcastle on Saturday week after training strongly on Thursday morning.
Glory coach Dave Mitchell said the 36-year-old would trial in Perth over the next 10 days before the club made any decision on whether to recruit him for a nine-match guest appearance.
The Brazilian World Cup winner was the Glory’s star recruit last season but severely injured his hamstring in the Round 4 clash against the Queensland (now Brisbane) Roar and was eventually released by the club in May, having played just a handful of matches after that.
But, fit and firing again, Amaral has made his way back to Perth, saying he has a point to prove to Glory fans who he feels were short-changed by his recurring injuries last season.
“It was a shame ’cause he was a great player and we were robbed of his services last year,” Mitchell said.
“He feels bad about that and he appreciates that the club really looked after him when he was injured and he wants to pay back a bit of debt that he’s sort of incurred (by) proving his fitness and playing for the club.”
“He’s come and trained with us and he looks good, but he’s here for 10 days, we’re going to have a good look at him, have him tested to see how he copes with that and then make a decision whether we keep him on or not,” Mitchell said.
If he passes muster, Amaral will add depth to the Glory’s midfield which was somewhat exposed last week against Adelaide after a knee injury to Jamie Coyne forced Mitchell to throw debutant Todd Howarth into the lion’s den.
Coyne, normally a defender, was already filling the hole left by Wayne Srhoj’s hamstring injury and the club can ill afford more midfield injuries as it looks for its first win of the new campaign.
“It’s (the midfield) sort of an area probably where we lack a bit of depth and Amaral’s dead keen to come back to Perth,” Mitchell said.
“That’s why he became appealing, particularly with him so keen. He’s paid his own way, so it’s not cost the club anything so far and from there we’re looking forward to seeing what he can do.”
Srhoj, though, has been passed fit to play against the Wellington Phoenix this Sunday and replaces Coyne in the only change the Glory made to last week’s squad.
However, on the back of a 10-hour trip to New Zealand, Mitchell will be taking a cautious approach with Srhoj and right midfielder Adriano Pellegrino, who trained for the first time this week on Thursday after being laid up with tonsillitis.
“It’s a long flight and someone might not feel well, so there’s always options for things to change but not really looking to change much,” Mitchell said after the Glory struggled to produce fluent attacking football during the 1-0 loss to the Reds.
“(Pellegrino’s) trained today but again that’s one of those options where you have to wait and see how he reacts to (the flight) and does he feel depleted.”
“If he is (strong) then obviously we’ll play him ’cause he’s a good player but if he’s not then we might have to play (Andrija) Jukic up there and look at the different options,” he said.
