Injured Adelaide United striker Hiroshi Ibusuki appears certain to join teammate Jay Barnett on the sidelines for the rest of the Isuzu UTE A-League finals.
Ibusuki suffered a flare-up of a calf injury in Adelaide’s 2-1 loss to Central Coast in the first leg of their semi-finals on Saturday night.
And Barnett, who didn’t front against the Mariners, has been ruled out for the rest of the season because of a hamstring injury.
The injury blows come ahead of the Reds’ trip to Gosford to meet the buoyant Mariners in the deciding leg of their semis.
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Ibusuki limped off during Saturday night’s second half – he missed the last two games of the regular season with the same injury – and was spotted on crutches post-game.
“Hiroshi (Ibusuki), looks like he’s done his calf, but we will have to wait and see how bad it is tomorrow (Sunday),” Adelaide coach Carl Veart said.
Barnett didn’t feature at all: on the eve of the fixture, Veart said the midfielder was ill, but he came clean after the semi-final loss.
“Barnett’s done for the rest of the season … it’s a recurring injury that he has been having on and off the last few weeks and it’s just no good,” he said.
Defender Nick Ansell also pulled up sore late in the game, as did Zach Clough who came from the field on 69 minutes, while Ben Warland played the full 90 despite having “a bit of sickness” during the week.
Despite a “great second half”, Reds legend Bruce Djite described it as an “expensive” one, as Adelaide’s injury toll grew going into next week’s decisive clash at Industree Group Stadium.
“I think the second half was very, very good from Adelaide… they did show some courage, they did come back into the game, but gee, it was an expensive second half,” Djite said on Network 10.
“When you think about the injuries, you think of (Hiroshi) Ibusuki, you think of (Zach) Clough who came off a bit proppy, you think of (Nick) Ansell in that last two or three minutes who couldn’t even move, the had done all their subs so he had to stand up front and be a body on the pitch.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see how Adelaide United pull up from this. Great second half – very expensive on the injury front.”
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Veart’s bluff came during a Friday media conference when he also aimed a jibe at Central Coast for overtly celebrating their 4-0 win over the Reds in the last regular season game.
“They played it like it was their grand final and you saw the way they celebrated afterwards, they came here and put their eggs in the one basket,” Veart said pre-game.
The comment didn’t slip past Mariners coach Nick Montgomery.
“There was comments that we came here and celebrated like winning the grand final – I never saw that,” Montgomery said after Central Coast banked their first finals win in nine years.
“We celebrated like we finished in second spot and got an Asian Cup spot.
“A lot of talk this week, mind games or whatever you want to call it – the boys were fully focused.
“It was about coming here and doing the job we did.
“But it’s not over, it’s only halfway. We know we have got another tough game next weekend.”
The Mariners host the second leg in Gosford next Saturday night.
