Thomas Broich is optimistic he will play in Brisbane Roar’s semi-final against the Western Sydney.
Brisbane Roar captain Thomas Broich is optimistic he will play in Friday’s semi-final against the Western Sydney, despite picking up a calf injury in his side’s 2-1 win over Adelaide United on Sunday.
Broich, who took a heavy knock to the back of his left heel when competing for a ball with Jeronimo, says a final decision on whether he will play or not will be made at midday on Friday.
Brisbane will not fancy facing the newly-crowned premiers without their talismanic German, but the midfielder was relaxed about his chances of recovering in time.
“It should be alright,” Broich told reporters on arrival back in Brisbane on Monday afternoon.
“It happened yesterday, so give it a day or two and it might be gone. It’s just some massive bruising right now.
“You expect it to be sore the day after, so yeah it’s sore but we’ll talk again tomorrow.”
Brisbane’s star man sustained the injury shortly after setting up his team’s opening goal with a corner that was spectacularly volleyed into the net by Luke Brattan.
He remained on the field until the half-time break, despite having considerable trouble moving about.
Just before the interval, the Roar scored a second goal through Ivan Franjic, but Broich admitted it would have been wiser to come off sooner, saying there was no hope of him returning for the second 45 minutes.
“It probably wasn’t a smart decision to try that because the team was a man down for 10 minutes, and I guess we did pretty well to score just before half-time, but I just couldn’t go on,” he said.
“I couldn’t have kept going, there was no chance.
“And the boys did pretty well. We’ve got a pretty strong bench so it’s very pleasing to see.”
Broich said he had not had time to think about the Wanderers match up yet, but an in-form Roar team would relish the prospect of the do-or-die battle at a packed Parramatta Stadium.
“To be honest I haven’t thought about it yet,” he said.
“We’ve lost against them three times this season so it’s not going to be easy but at the same time, the team’s peaking at the right time.
“So it’s going to be an awesome game. It’s finals time, it’s those games that you’re really looking forward to.”
Brisbane right back Jack Hingert suffered an ankle injury against Adelaide, and won’t be ready in time for Friday’s game, but the other injury worry, Brattan, will most likely be available.
