Several big names for the Perth Glory are in doubt for Sunday’s home clash with Newcastle as Hayden Foxe, Nikita Rukavytsya and Amaral are all struggling with niggling injuries.
Former Socceroo Foxe missed last week’s win over Wellington with hamstring soreness and will face a fitness test on Saturday afternoon to see if he lines up in a defence that’s already missing the injured Dino Djulbic, who rolled his ankle last weekend, along with David Tarka (quadricep).
Brazilian midfielder Amaral received a knock to the back of his leg during training on Thursday and will get the results from scans on Friday afternoon, the club hoping the 35-year-old has not re-injured the hamstring he strained against Queensland in Round 4.
The club’s top goal scorer Rukavytsya, who’s struck three times in the last two matches, will also have a fitness test done on Saturday after not training at times throughout the week with a knee complaint.
Foxe’s availability will go a long way to determining the team’s structure, though, as his absence will force veteran utility Jamie Harnwell to move from the forward third to centre-back, where he’ll partner Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
Such a move should enable Eugene Dadi to return to the starting line-up and partner Rukavytsya up front if the forward is fit to play.
But coach Dave Mitchell is not giving up yet on the experienced Foxe.
“We’re monitoring Hayden, he’s still not 100 per cent yet so just hopefully he’ll recover for Sunday but it’s up in the air at the minute,” Mitchell said.
“He has to sort of train tomorrow as the last opportunity, that’s the day before the game and I like to pick the team and go through some shadow work then, that’s the deadline.”
Mitchell said he also had a few tricks up his sleeve in midfield if Amaral was unavailable.
“There’s a couple of options I’ll look at,” he said. “(We’ve) got Wayne Srhoj, there’s (Adrian) Trinidad that can go in there as well.”
Regardless of the absentees, Mitchell said it was vital the club grabbed maximum points from this encounter with a Jets side that’s down on confidence following two consecutive losses.
“We’ll certainly be going for the win for sure, no matter who plays,” Mitchell declared.
“To win two on the spin, we haven’t done that as a club for a while.”
“We win a game, we draw and we lose and it’s important that we can stabilise that and get that win and it helps (we’re) playing at home,” he said.
