Wellington striker Paul Ifill is in doubt for the Phoenix’s Hyundai A-League match against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
The Barbadian international, who scored his first goal for the club in last weekend’s 2-1 win against Perth Glory, missed training on Wednesday with a groin niggle.
He was substituted with around 15 minutes to go in the match at Westpac Stadium with tightness in his groin.
Midfielder Tim Brown is another under an injury cloud. His groin problem kept him out of Sunday’s victory.
“We’ve got some depth in the squad and it’ll be opportunities for other players but hopefully we will get at least one of them there,” coach Ricki Herbert said.
Goalkeeper Reece Crowther and midfielder Daniel also sat out training due to illness but Herbert was confident the pair would be available for selection.
The coach has welcomed the arrival of new signing Jiang Chen who had his first run with his new team-mates in the New Zealand capital on Wednesday.
However, the Chinese under-23 player won’t be considered for the trip to Brisbane given his lack of time with the side.
“He’s had his fitness test this morning and he’s joined the group for a session here. It’s good to have him here,” said Herbert.
“He’s settled in pretty quickly. We’ll be patient with him. I think he can certainly be an impact for us. We’ll probably look around the next home game against Adelaide to have him part of that.”
While attacking, entertaining football was the order of the day in Wellington last weekend, the Phoenix coach hinted a slightly more conservative approach could be adopted for this weekend’s match.
“I think Brisbane are very good on the counter and have quick players up front too so we’ll have to be conscious of that,” he said.
“They’ll probably be slightly different to what Perth were going to challenge us with and we’ve never gone there (to Brisbane) and done that well either.”
“I’m not sure there will be a lot of personnel changes. I think just slightly different responsibilities, at least for the front players.”
“They will be desperate to try and get their season started. We’re in good form and we travel there with a lot of confidence off the back of Perth and we’ll look to get across there and get three points.”
