Melbourne Victory is confident that both Robbie Kruse and Leigh Broxham will play in Sunday’s blockbuster against Sydney FC at the Sydney Football Stadium despite both carrying injuries into the game.
Kruse took no part in Friday’s light training session at Olympic Park and struggled to run with his thigh heavily-iced. He already has an existing shoulder complaint which he has carried for the past two weeks, but coach Ernie Merrick believes he will be fit to play on Sunday.
“We’ve had 27 rounds, the boys have been going for ten months, they’ve all got little aches and pains here and there. They’re all precautionary. Robbie’s good, Robbie’s ready to go,” he said.
Merrick said that while Kruse was still feeling his shoulder injury, it wasn’t affecting his ability to play.
“I think it’s an awareness thing. I don’t think there’s any pain with it. He knows that there’s no serious injury there. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all,” he said.
Broxham finished the session with his right knee heavily iced and was sporting a noticeable limp, but he too is expected to take his spot on Sunday.
“Broxham’s good. I think he was putting on a show for you. Broxy’s going to start. He’s been playing really well for us,” Merrick said.
Merrick is looking to make only minor changes to the starting line-up which defeated North Queensland 2-0 last weekend, with Matthew Kemp out with a long-term knee injury. Either Surat Sukha or Evan Berger are likely to take his spot. The coach is also considering including Nik Mrdja for his first start with his new club.
“I’m pretty keen on Mrdja starting because he did really well with us. I’m not looking at too many changes at all,” he said.
While the defending champions go into the match without Archie Thompson, Kevin Muscat and Kemp, Merrick’s confidence in the depth of his team is unshaken.
“If our results weren’t as good, I might be worried. That last five games, we’ve won four of them. We’ve scored 14 goals. That’s almost three goals a game. Whoever we bring in just does a fantastic job. I’m very happy the way we are travelling,” he said.
“Sometimes you feel that the youngsters won’t back up and consistency will be an issue. But they keep backing up and players come back in from injury or whatever and look a million dollars,” he said. “You lose one another one comes in and does a good job.”
Melbourne kept the media out for the first hour or so of Friday’s session, with Merrick saying the club wanted the space and privacy to fine tune things out of the public eye.
“It’s a big game. It’s a very exciting finish to the season. There’s a lot at stake, there’s a place in the Asian Champions League. We want to do everything right and we just don’t want to give away too much at all,” he said.
