It's Heart v Victory in the Melbourne Derby, Tara Rushton and Mark Rudan look ahead to one of the marquee matches in the A-League calendar.
Kevin Muscat gives instructions during a Melbourne Victory training session. Source: Getty Images
MELBOURNE Victory coach Kevin Muscat is still deliberating on the replacement for suspended Chilean Pablo Contreras in central defence for Saturday night’s Melbourne derby at AAMI Park.
With Adrian Leijer (fractured eye socket) still missing Jason Geria, Adama Traore and Leigh Broxham are the options to partner Nick Ansell in defence against in-form Melbourne Heart.
Victory players had the lightest of sessions at Gosch’s Paddock on Friday morning, with strength and conditioning coach Peter Cklamovski overseeing the 40-minute run through after the players only returned from Guangzhou late on Thursday night.
There were no fresh injury concerns for Muscat from the 4-2 loss to the reigning Asian Champions League winners Guangzhou Evergrande.
Fox Sports football commentator Simon Hill reflects on the heavy losses inflicted on A-League Sides Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers in Wednesday night's Asian Champions League fixtures.
Should Broxham move into defence then Rashid Mahazi would most likely slot into midfield while Dylan Murnane has been solid at left-back when Traore’s shifted and Scott Galloway has been the regular right-back at A-League level though Geria played there on Wednesday.
Midfielder Tom Rogic got through the session and is almost certain to start along with Brazilian Gui Finkler.
“I’ve tried to be as honest as possible about selections throughout the campaign but at this point in time we’ve got to reassess the squad tomorrow (Saturday) morning and get another check from the medical team,” Muscat said.
“Pablo’s suspended apart from that there’s the normal knocks but I think it’s a good game to play after the travel because no-one’s telling me they’re unavailable, everyone wants to play.
“It’s a big game for us, they all are but tomorrow night’s derby is something special.
“Gui stayed here so he’ll come back into the team. With Tom we’ll wait and see how he reacts tomorrow but from all indications this morning he wants to make himself available.”
Muscat said while learning plenty of lessons from the 4-2 loss, the players have taken plenty of positives from dominating the first half against the Marcello Lippi-coached side.
“It was a positive experience for us. We’re upbeat, it’s the perfect game to come back to as well,” he said.
“This morning was just about recovery, get out here open the legs a bit and freshen up.”
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