Adelaide United has not ruled out playing recruit Marcos Flores as a guest player in its upcoming Hyundai A-League matches.
The Argentinean, who was brought into the side to boost the Reds’ chances in their upcoming Asian Champions League campaign, arrived in Adelaide on Sunday night.
Coach Aurelio Vidmar said it was ‘unlikely’ Flores would play in the coming weeks but said an early than expected debut would be considered.
“I’m not ruling that out. There are certain rules that we need to abide by, from the Football Federation, which is no guest player can play the last four games of the season and that would mean he’d only play a couple of games,” he said.
“We just have to gauge how he is in terms of his fitness. He’s given us an indication how fit he is, his last competitive game was 10th of December and he’s had a little bit of time off due to a long season.”
“He’s been training for three weeks now and I think for us, as much as it would be great to try and sneak him in, we also don’t want to damage him. It’s probably unlikely but you never say never.”
“He wants to be on top of his game before he steps on the park.”
Vidmar said it’s hoped the 24-year-old will help bolster the team’s attacking game. United has scored just 17 goals this season – seven less than the ninth-placed Fury.
“We think he’s got some real great qualities at the pointy end and he’s probably a few weeks away from some good fitness but we’ve got five weeks to prepare for the Asian Champions League,” Vidmar said.
“His technique, his ability to beat players, he scores goals, he’s got very good vision in that front third and they’re some of the qualities that we’ve certainly been missing in the midfield.”
Flores has promised to work on his English but hopes his actions will speak louder than words.
“I can put a striker into a goal scoring position, that’s my mentality,” he said through a translator.
“I know it’s a very dynamic, hard and physical league but I’m going to try and get the ball to do the work.”
