Adelaide striker Lloyd Owusu has been cleared of any serious injury to his neck, but still remains an outside chance to play against Central Coast on Friday night.
Scans on Monday revealed that Owusu has injured on of the discs in his neck and sustained bruising in the spinal cord following an accidental collision with team-mate Michael Marrone in the second half of last Friday-s 1-1 draw with the Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand.
The Ghanian left the field momentarily, but returned with bandaging on his head to play out the majority of the match.
“The MRI scan showed that Lloyd has got a cervical 34 disc injury and some spinal cord oedema,” said Reds team doctor James Ilic.
“In simpler terms, he has injured one of the discs in the mid neck region, plus he-s also got some mild bruising to the spinal cord, which is probably due to a pulling affect on those nerve roots at that level of the spinal cord.”
“The conclusion at the moment is that Lloyd can train providing he is relatively pain free and symptom free, and in terms of returning to games, it will depend on how his symptoms go.”
“He-s an outside possibility to play this Friday, but more than likely it will be the following week or even the week after.”
The Reds face two consecutive Friday night matches at home with rivals Melbourne to follow the Mariners clash this week.
Captain Travis Dodd and Cassio are likely to be available this week with the duo rejoining the main group after recovering from calf injuries.
