INJURIES HIT MELBOURNE

A raft of injuries and suspension appears to have decimated the Melbourne Victory squad in the last few weeks. This has put a lot of pressure on manager Kevin Muscat, but he says that he has a very strong squad capable of dealing with such issues. Melbourne Victory have been one of the top teams in the Australian A-League this season after having been undefeated in the opening four matches. They sit at top of the table along with Sydney. However, the team had to pay a huge price for this good start after suffering three injuries and suspensions in the latest match against Melbourne City.

Melbourne Victory suffered a 4-2 defeat in this FFA Cup quarter-final match against Melbourne City, but more worryingly, the team will be without a number of key players for the match against Wellington. Manager Muscat, though, said that he has enough strength in depth to be able to replace some of the players. It remains to be seen if he can name five potential first-team replacements in the space of a few days. Matthieu Delpierre and Besart Berisha were the names to suffer an injury during the match, while Archie Thompson was ruled out of the match after injuring during the warmup.

“Trying to put all that aside, it’s disappointing to bow out of a tournament at this stage. We wanted to progress and at the start of the game I thought we showed that intent in the way we were playing. It just wasn’t meant to be, nothing went right on the night. But sifting through the debris now, we’ll have the best side available out on the park on Monday night,” said Muscat. The only dropped points for Melbourne Victory decision has come in the 1-1 draw with Adelaide United a few weeks ago.