Sydney FC coach Ian Crook will resist rushing back central defender Pascal Bosschaart despite the loss of the experienced Adam Griffiths with a hamstring injury.
Sydney FC coach Ian Crook will resist rushing back central defender Pascal Bosschaart despite the loss of the experienced Adam Griffiths with a hamstring injury.
Griffiths is expected to miss at least two weeks after straining his hamstring in the second half of Saturday night’s 3-2 defeat to the Newcastle Jets.
The 33-year-old’s injury played a crucial part in the weekend’s result, with Griffiths unable to stay with Craig Goodwin who scored the Jets’ decisive third goal.
Griffiths’ absence leaves a huge hole in the middle of the Sky Blues defence which has already looked shaky in conceding five goals in the opening two rounds.
While Bosschaart would be an ideal replacement heading into Saturday night’s inaugural derby against the Western Sydney Wanderers, the Dutchman is still working his way back to full fitness.
Bosschaart, who had surgery to repair a snapped Achilles tendon in the off-season, played 30 minutes for the club’s youth team last week but Crook is reluctant to take any unnecessary risks with the veteran defender.
“We’ll give him a week of training and let’s see how he progresses through each day,” Crook said of Bosschaart on Monday.
“He pulled up a little sore after the game the other day against the Central Coast but he’s getting better and better each day.
“Hopefully in the next fortnight he’ll be there or thereabouts.”
Sebastian Ryall, who impressed when he came off the bench against the Jets on Saturday night, or youngster Daniel Petkovski are likely to take Griffiths’ centre-back spot alongside Trent McClenahan.
While admitting the absence of his two most experienced defenders is a blow, Crook said it was up to the whole team to lift to cover the loss.
“We’ve always spoken about the fact we need to defend as a team and attack as a team,” the Sky Blues boss said.
“We’ve conceded cheap goals, probably four of the five goals we’ve conceded have been down to us turning the ball over and that’s something we don’t want to do.
“But that’s not just (the) defenders (fault), that’s everybody.
“If you look at each half of games over the two weeks we’ve progressively got better.
“We can’t hide from the fact we haven’t won in two but we can take a lot of positives out of the weekend and take them into the next game.”
Crook said young midfielder Terry Antonis, who missed the Jets clash through concussion, is likely to return to face the Wanderers at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night.
