Gold Coast United could be missing up to seven first-choice players for Sunday’s match against Perth Glory, with fears in-form striker Bruce Djite may miss the club’s remaining three regular season fixtures which will determine their fate on the ladder.
Part-time Socceroo Djite has been on fire in recent weeks, banging in six goals in his past five starts, but succumbed to a hamstring strain and was substituted just 26 minutes into his side’s scoreless stalemate with Adelaide United on Wednesday and will undergo a scan to assess the level of damage.
Later in the match, defender John Curtis was knocked out and carried off in a neck brace after a nasty collision with Paul Reid – but fortunately for United, the Englishman has been cleared of a serious head or neck injury, with his shoulder now the main concern.
Djite and Curtis will both miss the clash with Perth, joining Jason Culina and Robson on the sidelines – and possibly James Brown, Bas van den Brink and Zenon Caravella if the trio cannot prove their fitness – leaving United just a few players short of an entire team of wounded stars.
“It doesn’t feel that bad but hamstrings always take a couple of weeks and I might be looking at that. I could still run around but I couldn’t really sprint so I put my hand up and said it wasn’t right,” Djite said.
“I couldn’t give 100 percent and if you can’t do that there’s no point playing. I’ll get some scans done and we’ll get a better idea.”
“It’s bad timing. It’s the business end of the season and as soon as you start to get some form going, these things happen. That’s football. You’ve got to take the good with the bad and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Team-mate Steve Pantelidis, who earned coach Miron Bleiberg’s personal man-of-the-match award for the Adelaide game, believes United’s focus for the rest of the season is now on securing a home final, with Central Coast looking to have second position – and the coveted double chance – sewn up.
“We created enough chances to win against Adelaide but we just couldn’t put it away. It was a little bit disappointing because we needed the three points to try and go for second spot so it’s going to be tougher now,” Pantelidis said.
“We’ve still got three games to go, and that’s two more than Melbourne Victory. If we win one of those three, which we should, we’ll have a home final.”
The reformed hardman paid tribute to Glory great Jamie Harnwell who will retire after Sunday’s match, but Pantelidis has every intention of spoiling his goodbye party.
“It’s a massive game for them. He’s had a great career and he’s their most capped player so it’s going to be a big occasion and I’m sure the fans are going to come out there and support him. Good on him and hopefully it will be a good game,” he said.
“They’re also trying to rebuild for next year so it’ll be a tough game and probably humid as well, with the 5pm kickoff. It’s always tough playing away in Perth but the boys are looking forward to it.”
