Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip is confident Michael Beauchamp can fill the void left by a calf injury to skipper Simon Colosimo ahead of this weekend’s trip to Perth to take on the Glory.
Colosimo has been forced out of the clash with his former club after failing to prove he was over the niggle which he suffered in the 2-0 win over North Queensland on January 2, leaving the Heart without their skipper and central defender.
“Simon pulled up out of the game with North Queensland with a calf strain injury. He had treatment last week, had a training session this week, but didn’t feel good enough to go to Perth and play a difficult game, so we preferred to give him a few days extra to prepare himself and hopefully be fit for the game against Gold Coast,” van ‘t Schip said.
Beauchamp, who seven months ago was playing in the World Cup, has fallen dramatically out of favour over the past month, having not started since the game against Newcastle on December 8.
Van ‘t Schip has preferred to use Matt Thompson and Colosimo as his central defenders but indicated Beauchamp was the logical replacement.
“Normally Michael Beauchamp will be the one who replaces him. He’s played in central defence for a great part of the season, and he’s looking very good over the last few weeks as well,” he said.
“Simon did very well when he came back to the squad, he played very sharp, was an example for the team and one of the players who helped us get the wins we have. Michael had a very good period before that, he struggled also some games, like all the players had. But he is an experienced defender and we are sure he will do a good job.”
With Heart scheduled to play three games in the space of seven days, the club has opted to send their players to Perth a day early to prepare for Saturday’s clash at nib Stadium.
“We could do it now as we had the break and we didn’t have a lot of games before this one so we scheduled it in to have a little more relaxed approach with the travel a day earlier. Hopefully it’s going to help us,” he said.
Van ‘t Schip said the pressure was on his side to get back into the top six after being overtaken by Newcastle in the past week.
“Perth had two difficult away games and performed very well. They are a quality team. We have played two times and drawn both, so we know it’s a difficult team to beat.” he said.
“For us, it’s important we win, we know the situation we are in and we need the points very much. If you want to play in the finals, every mistake we make now is really critical. It’s going to be a very difficult game which we have to approach with a lot of concentration and perform as a team.”
