Adelaide United’s quest to break its seven-game losing streak against Melbourne Victory has been dealt a blow with midfielder Paul Reid and possibly captain Travis Dodd set to miss this Saturday’s Hyundai A-League clash at Etihad Stadium.
Coach Aurelio Vidmar said Reid has already been ruled out with a calf injury while a decision on Dodd’s fitness will be made when the team arrives in Melbourne.
“Travis is going to be doubtful as well because he jarred his back yesterday at training and he’s pulled up quite sore this morning so we’ll leave that decision to the very last moment,” Vidmar said.
The experienced duo has had a disappointing run with injuries. Dodd, who had only missed two of Adelaide’s games before this year, has already missed three games with his own calf injuries this season.
Paul Reid is the Reds’ greater concern. He’s played just six games this season with calf and quad injuries disrupting his progress.
Vidmar said the team were unsure how to manage Reid after his latest setback.
“He (Reid) was just running back in a training drill and came and said he felt something in his calf. We can’t be too sure exactly why it’s happening, he covered every part of the leg in terms of his injury over this course of the season,” Vidmar said.
“We’ve monitored his loads extremely well, everyone’s loads really well, there’s been adequate training, there’s been adequate recovery and we are even looking into him wearing new boots.”
“Maybe the grounds are extremely hard at this point of time. We have to look at other areas, it might be mechanical we are not too sure.”
Vice-captain Lucas Pantelis and Daniel Mullen have been added to the team which beat Sydney FC last week.
Vidmar said he’s hopeful the players he does have available have the self belief to break the team’s run of outs against the Victory.
“We know the record is extremely poor, so we’ve got to go out there and believe that we can do it and have absolutely no doubt and we’ve spoken about that for the majority of this week and I think the boys are in a very good frame of mind,” he said.
“It’s a record we are not happy about but sooner or later the wheel will turn, hopefully it’s tomorrow night.”
And Vidmar hinted the team would persist with a two-man attack given the success of Cristiano and Mathew Leckie against the Sky Blues in Round 11.
“The closest we’ve probably got to beating them was in last year’s grand final when we did change the formation, we’ve changed a little bit, especially in the last week and we’ll more or less go with that same formation.”
