Melbourne Heart's Aziz Behich, left, will miss the clash with Wellington Phoenix. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun
A HECTIC month at international and A-League level has got the better of Melbourne Heart stars Aziz Behich and Richard Garcia.
The pair will miss today's clash with Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium.
They will be joined on the sidelines by the suspended Simon Colosimo and Patrick Gerhardt.
Steven Gray is set to make his Heart debut in the centre of defence alongside youngster David Vrankovic.
Jason Hoffman will return to replace Garcia, while another youth team product, Sam Mitchinson, is likely to join Heart's severely weakened line-up.
A fifth change was almost required when a visa mix-up left Josip Tadic stranded in Melbourne yesterday morning, but he was later cleared to take an afternoon flight.
Youngsters Jeremy Walker, who deputised for Michael Marrone at right back when he was on Socceroos duty, and Ersin Kaya have also been named in the 16-man squad.
Heart football operations manager John Didulica said of Garcia and Behich: "They've had a pretty torrid last few weeks playing the four games with the Socceroos and the long-haul travel involved with that. If you include the Victory game we've got four games in about 12 days.
"If you add that to the four games they played for the Socceroos and the quick turnaround they would have had for the Mariners game (on January 1), it's too much.
"So given the really heavy schedule there is over this period we thought we'd hold them back so they can give us something for the rest of the season."
Gray, 31, moved to Melbourne from Ireland in 2011 when he felt he had "won all there is to win" at home.
He played in the Victorian Premier League with Dandenong and then switched to Oakleigh before being invited to join Heart on its tour of Hawaii this year.
"Afterwards John Aloisi (then the youth team coach) said he really enjoyed working with me ... and that if there was any way he could get me to the club he would," Gray said.
"A lot of things are said in football, so I didn't really get my hopes up too much.
"But about three months later I saw in the paper that John Aloisi was the new coach of Melbourne Heart and I couldn't believe it.
"As luck would have it I got a call 48 hours later from my agent saying I'd been invited to training."
Gray said he had been itching to get the opportunity to prove himself in the Heart line-up.
"I've been feeling quite helpless sitting on the bench or sitting in the stands," he said.
"As much I'm loving it at the club, it is hard at times when you're not playing."
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