Queensland playmaker Charlie Miller will be given every chance to prove his fitness ahead of the Roar’s A-League clash against the Melbourne Victory at Telstra Dome this weekend.
Miller sustained a groin injury during the Roar’s 1-0 loss to Newcastle last week and was in doubt for Sunday’s match against the table-topping Victory.
But the Scotsman trained briskly in Brisbane on Friday and while coach Frank Farina stopped short of declaring his star recruit a certain starter, he did feel confident that Miller would take his spot in the side come Sunday.
“Charlie will travel with us tomorrow,” Farina said.
“This morning was short and sharp and he seemed to be okay, we’ll have another session tomorrow, but at this stage he looks alright.”
“Definitely not for 90 minutes, but it looks as though he’ll start the game.”
If Miller is unable to take his place in the side, Farina will call upon the services of 22-year-old Tim Smits, who is already in Melbourne for the National Youth League season opener.
The Victory will rely on raw goal keeper Mitch Langerak to take the edge off the Roar on Sunday, with usual custodian Michael Theoklitos forced to watch from the sidelines as he sits out the first week of his two-match ban.
Farina was hopeful that the absence of the suspended Theoklitos could be a possible advantage for the Roar.
“Theoklitos is one of the best keepers in the league, for them not to have him is obviously good for us, and maybe not so good for them,” he said.
“I’m sure that the goal keeper that they will bring in will do a good job, but Theoklitos does organise them at the back and he’s a strong personality … but we don’t look too much into that, we just focus on us.”
Roar captain Craig Moore was looking forward to the challenge of taking on the league leaders.
“If you’re looking at doing anything in the season, you need to beat teams like Melbourne, we definitely need to get a result.” Moore said.
“It’s a big game, but I think it’s a good game for us, there’s no real pressure on us, I think everyone will be expecting Melbourne to possibly come out of the game on top.”
“So we’ll go down there and play our game and hopefully get a result.”
