The Newcastle Jets are confident of fielding a full-strength side in Tuesday night’s Asian Champions League match against Korean team Ulsan Hyundai in Newcastle despite three players being under an injury cloud.
Skipper Matt Thompson (hamstring), midfielder Jobe Wheelhouse (groin) and striker Sean Rooney (knee) are in doubt for the crucial home fixture, but are expected to pass fitness tests before the match.
“I think they all should come through and should be ready for the game on Tuesday night,” Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond said on Monday.
“Thommo (Matt Thompson) went to physio yesterday and he said it was fine, we just need to him to get through tonight’s training session to make himself eligible for selection.”
“We rested Jobe on Saturday to make sure his groin had a best chance of recovery, while young Sean Rooney just caught the ball the wrong way on the end of his toe and jarred his knee but again he should be fine.”
“But we have a number of contingencies should any of those guys not make it. Young Kaz Patafta has been doing well, Angelo Costanzo has shown enough to suggest his is capable of doing a job. Marko Jesic is another one who is coming back from injury and played 30 minutes in a trail match last Wednesday so we have got some payers coming back from the injured list.”
Van Egmond also indicated that the Jets would continue to play a ‘physical’ brand of football in Tuesday night’s clash despite earning the referee’s ire in their 2-0 loss to Chinese side Beijing Guaon in the opening round of the competition.
“I think you’ll find the Koreans are the most physical nation in Asia area, they are quite big and strong so we’re expecting them to come out and be physical with us,” he said.
“But it is more the fact that players from Guoan knew when to slow the play down and breaking up our rhythm and momentum when we were starting to get a decent amount of possession and look threatening – they ensured that the game started to slow down.”
“And we were a little bit naive as we were knocking the ball out every time but I can assure you we won’t knock the ball out this time unless the referee tells us to.”
