All Whites Mark Paston and Ben Sigmund will be pressed into action for the Wellington Phoenix in their first Hyundai A-League pre-season fixture against the Brisbane Roar in Hamilton this weekend.
Fellow New Zealand internationals Leo Bertos and Tony Lochhead are not expected to play at Waikato Stadium as they get over a tough couple of months of international football, while Tim Brown will be given extra time to recover from surgery to his fractured shoulder.
“Mark will probably play and Ben will play but the others are not [being considered] at this stage. They just need to recover a bit. It’s been a pretty tough eight weeks for them,” Phoenix and All Whites coach Ricki Herbert said.
“They are all in good heart and Brownie will be right to train fully again next week.”
While Sigmund will be relishing the game time on Saturday after failing to feature during New Zealand’s World Cup campaign in South Africa, goalkeeper Paston will have to front despite playing in every one of the All Whites matches because young Phoenix goalkeeper Reece Crowther is still on loan at Finnish club EIF Ekenas FC and is not expected back until the end of the month.
“[Mark’s] had it pretty tough too,” Herbert conceded. “But at the moment he’ll have to play.”
Saturday’s game against the Roar will also give Herbert the chance to run his eye over new signing Dylan Macallister and triallist, Brazilian striker Magno Vieira.
“I haven’t seen too much of him but he’s done all right. But the big stage is on the pitch so we’ll see how he copes,” said Herbert of Vieira.
The Phoenix coach wasn’t expecting miracles from his side because of the disrupted build-up to the first competitive hit-out of the season.
“I think we’ll be a bit more disjointed given the World Cup. We’ll just give some players some time. The ones that have been here [training] need to play,” he said.
“I’m looking for a good competitive game but it’s less about the result than seeing where we sit in the broader scheme of things before the season starts in August.”
Macallister and young defender James Musa are the only new signings so far for the Phoenix, who have 17 of the 20-strong squad they must declare to Football Federation Australia by August 1 following the recent departure of defender Jon McKain.
“We’ll have 20 [by the deadline]. We’ve got quite a big list of players to work through. We should be fine by then,” said Herbert.
“We’re looking at probably another attacking-type player. A defender and then we’ve got to give consideration to a young player and who that might be.”
Speculation continues about Herbert’s future at the club where he has one year remaining on his contract.
He is also in negotiations with New Zealand Football about a potential four-year extension leading into 2014 but refused to comment on either on Thursday.
“I don’t want to comment on it because it’s kind of sitting with the people it needs to sit with,” he said. “It’s just wait and see. Watch this space.”
