Adelaide United’s vice-captain Lucas Pantelis will miss the Reds’ away clash against Perth Glory this Friday with a knee injury.
The 27-year-old missed the club’s past two training sessions and United coach Aurelio Vidmar said selecting him wasn’t ‘worth the risk’ given the team’s short turnaround between matches.
“He just got a knock during the course of the game (against Newcastle), continued on, then obviously the next day it was fairly swollen,” Vidmar said.
“He’s had that from his operation so he had a few games last year where he had the knee swollen and he missed a couple of games, so that’s what he’s got to deal with.”
Fabian Barbiero will replace Pantelis in the squad after playing the past two games in the National Youth League.
Vidmar said the 25-year-old, who played 19 Hyundai A-League games last season and was a prominent player in the club’s ACL campaign, would be a welcome addition in the side.
“He’s going to give us a fair bit of energy and a fair few legs so he’s had the last couple of weeks in the youth team, he knows the role and certainly someone who gives that running in the midfield will be an added bonus,” Vidmar said.
Leg speed was a crucial component during Adelaide’s comeback against Newcastle at Hindmarsh Stadium on Monday and Vidmar expects it’ll be a factor against Dave Mitchell’s men too.
“Last week we had to make those changes because through the midfield we weren’t able to break those lines and once we shifted Travis (Dodd) in there we put a bit of speed out wide with Maty Leckie then things all of a sudden started to change for us,” Vidmar said.
“Certainly that mobility and leg speed that we need … with Fabian we’ll certainly get that.”
United will enter its clash with the Glory as underdogs given they’ve had two less days to recover from their Round 9 clash and because the game is in Perth.
Vidmar is hopeful the team’s experiences in the ACL last year, which at times saw them play a couple of games a week, will put them in good stead.
“It’s been a little while since we’ve had a game after four days but we can only prepare the best we can, they were probably feeling a little bit sore yesterday so we didn’t do too much and again this morning – sometimes it takes a little bit of time to tick over,” Vidmar said.
“They should be used to games every three or four days anyway. It’s only a one-off for us so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
