Melbourne City head coach Aurelio Vidmar said the Isuzu UTE A-League champions did not “risk” Mathew Leckie after the Socceroo “felt something” in his hamstring during Tuesday night’s AFC Champions League Elite opener.
Leckie was withdrawn at half-time against Sanfrecce Hiroshima as the J1 League title contenders emerged 2-0 winners on matchday one in Melbourne.
In his first competitive match since suffering a hamstring injury in May’s Grand Final triumph over rivals Melbourne Victory, Leckie started at AAMI Park before he was substituted at the interval.
Afterwards, Vidmar revealed the reason behind the half-time change as City gear up for their Round 1 trip to Western Sydney Wanderers on October 18.
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“I think it’s a Grand Final hamstring again,” Vidmar told reporters post-game. “I haven’t seen him yet.
“We just didn’t risk him at half-time. He felt something, so it was better not to risk him. We have a long season, a lot of travel so we’ll see what happens with him over the next couple of days.”
Vidmar also provided an update on two players who did not feature against Sanfrecce.
Alessandro Lopane and Andrew Nabbout were both absent due to injuries, with Vidmar revealing the former is facing at least three months on the sidelines.
“Ale had an operation on his ankle a couple of weeks ago. A training incident. He’ll probably be out for three or so month,” he said.
“Nabbout had a bit of a setback with his knee but started training again today (Tuesday). He’s probably 2-3 weeks away from joining the group.”
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City were stepping out for their first competitive game since July, when a youthful team lost to NPL outfit APIA Leichhardt in the Australia Cup Round of 32 while Sanfrecce are in the midst of a title challenge in Japan.
On Tuesday night, Japanese star and ACL ELite winner Takeshi Kanamori debuted for City alongside captain Aziz Behich, Nathaniel Atkinson, Patrick Beach, Andreas Kuen, Max Caputo, Kai Trewin, German Ferreyra, Samuel Souprayen, Kavian Rahmani and Leckie.
Young guns Lawrence Wong, Zane Schreiber, Ben Mazzeo, Harrison Shillington and Emin Durakovic also came off the bench.
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“Obviously when you lose, it’s always disappointing. But I think we’re pretty positive with the outcome in terms of giving us a quite good prep going into the season and the next game,” said Vidmar.
“We will get better. That’s really our first competitive game since the Grand Final. But we did a lot of good things. Obviously we got a little bit tired from around 60-70-minute mark. We made some changes and it really freshened it up.
“The kids who came on did quite well.
“Probably disappointed in the way we conceded the goals. We should’ve been a bit more positive the way we wanted to play out in that moment before we gave away the penalty.
“But as I said, it’s going to be really important learning moments for us.”
