Perth Glory defender Andy Todd looks set to miss Sunday’s clash with Central Coast as he continues his recovery from a hip injury.
The Glory’s club champion last season, former Blackburn skipper Todd has been hit with one injury after another this campaign, after having pre-season knee surgery.
The 36-year-old appeared back to his best, however, in Perth’s 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory on November 14, but in the days after that game suffered a minor tear to his hip flexor in training, which kept him out of Perth’s last three matches.
The club had hoped having the bye last weekend would give Todd enough time to recover for the Mariners’ game, but Todd did not train on Tuesday and was instead standing by the sidelines in civvies.
Todd confirmed to Sportal that he was unlikely to play against the Mariners, while he must also be in some doubt to head to Melbourne for the December 18 clash with the Victory at AAMI Park.
Todd will join defenders Naum Sekulovski and Brent Griffiths in the stands on Sunday after the two players were suspended for a match for their dismissals against North Queensland, while Mile Sterjovski has also received a one-game ban for accumulating five yellow cards.
It’s hardly the scenario Perth needs coming up against the Mariners, who destroyed Sydney FC 4-0 last weekend, especially as the Glory are looking to get their campaign back on track after just one win from the last 14 games.
But there was some good news for the club, however, as fellow central defender Jamie Harnwell trained fully and appears to have recovered from the calf injury which also kept him out of the last three games.
Along with Harnwell, Scott Neville and Josh Mitchell could return from a one-week ban to a besieged Perth defence that’s been badly hit by injuries and suspension this season.
Speaking before training, Neville said the bye weekend had been a good opportunity for the players to get their mental approach right for the Mariners game, after a very crowded schedule of matches.
“Last week was a really good chance to recap on where we are and really give the next eight or nine weeks a real go,” said Neville.
“We’ve had a couple of meetings about setting goals, play your positions and shape.”
Despite sitting second-last on the Hyundai A-League table, the club hasn’t given up on making the play-offs this season, a hope that remains a possibility as the teams from fifth to ninth are struggling to produce consistent results.
“With the way we’ve played and the results that we got, we didn’t expect to be still in the situation where we could make finals,” said Neville.
“I think now that we’ve had a really good, hard look at ourselves we need to start picking up points to reach our goal of making the finals.”
“Hopefully we can get into that last finals’ spot and that’s what we’re all aiming towards, so that’s where we’ll hopefully take the ship.”
