Adelaide United captain Stefan Mauk is desperate to start the A-League Men’s season but concedes that decision rests with medicos.
Mauk played all of last season with a broken left leg which failed to heal as expected in the off-season.
The Reds skipper had surgery on August 20 and has only returned to full training with his teammates in the past two weeks.
Despite his restricted pre-season, the key midfielder says he’ll push for selection for Adelaide’s season-opener against Perth Glory on November 20.
“I will put my hand up for selection, it’s just whether the physios and and coaches think it’s the smartest thing to do,” Mauk told reporters on Thursday.
Mauk initially suffered a fracture in his left fibula in the pre-season before the last campaign.
After missing two months of training, he returned to play but copped another knock on the leg a month or so into the season.
Mauk battled on, scoring seven goals in 25 games.
“It was pretty frustrating to play with,” he said.
“It felt okay in some games and then other games it felt like I was hobbling for the whole 90 minutes.
“The team, we had quite a few injuries, so being a leader and an older player you needed to step up. It shows the other players you’re going to have injuries throughout your career, you just have to deal with it.”
Mauk lauded the culture at Adelaide, beaten semi-finalists last season, amid the global support for his teammate Josh Cavallo, who recently came out as the first gay footballer currently playing anywhere in the world.
“A big thing that the club has really tried to re-set in the last couple of years is the culture,” Mauk said.
“I’m not saying it wasn’t good, but how can we make it better, how can we make people feel comfortable off the field so that they can perform on it.
“It’s an easy thing to say and it’s a hard thing to do and I think we have done that.
“Josh is now hopefully going to be playing even better than what he was before because he’s feeling a lot freer and more comfortable within the group.
“And it’s a great message that he brought up, that it doesn’t matter about who you are as a person, football is for everyone.”
