Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell will be giving top-line defender Hayden Foxe more time to prove his fitness ahead of this weekend’s crunch game against Wellington.
The former Socceroo, who missed the first seven matches of this season with an inflammation of a serious foot injury he received while playing for Portsmouth, has apparently been suffering from general soreness after his first two matches of the new Hyundai A-League season.
Foxe had a late fitness test last weekend ahead of the club’s narrow loss to Adelaide United but the 31-year-old made it through that encounter and has been on a modified training schedule this week, along with Jamie Harnwell and skipper Jamie Coyne, in order to ensure the trio are fit and firing for this weekend.
But Mitchell was giving nothing away in terms of whether the players would be available.
“There’s a few niggles there that I want to be sure of,” was all the Glory coach would confirm. “(But) I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag so to speak.”
“You’d think that if Foxey doesn’t come through then you’ve got Dino (Djulbic) there.”
“But the scenario is that we’ve got a squad now that I can pick a few players from, there’s a few options there either way,” Mitchell said.
One player who will be looking to make his return will be top-scorer Eugene Dadi, who missed the Glory’s last two matches after injuring his groin in the warm-up ahead of the club’s big win over Sydney in round eight.
Mitchell, though, wanted Dadi to get through Friday’s training sessions first before admitting him back into the side.
But the Glory coach indicated that Dadi’s availability gave him more options, as the French-Ivorian can partner Nikita Rukavytsya up front, allowing Harnwell to replace Foxe at centre-back if necessary.
Regardless of the selection, Mitchell declared his last-placed side would not be going out simply expecting to win against the Phoenix, despite having beaten Wellington at Members Equity in Round 5, in a scrappy 1-0 result.
Instead, he said the side was focused on the job at hand, especially as maximum points over the next two home fixtures against Wellington and Newcastle were essential to any hope the Glory have of making the finals this season.
“Wellington has had a couple of good results themselves,” Mitchell said.
“They beat Central Coast on their own patch, (so you) don’t take them for granted and everyone thinks ‘Wellington you’re going to win’, but you earn the right to win and that’s exactly what we have to do.”
The Phoenix, though, will be without attacker Adam Kwasnik, who is being rested for this fixture, his place in the selected side taken by youngster Costa Barbarouses.
Former Glory player Leo Bertos may also start for Wellington after impressing in the second half of last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Queensland, despite missing a superb late chance to equalise in that match.
