In-from Perth Glory striker Nikita Rukavytsya is in doubt for Saturday night's clash with Melbourne Victory. The A-League's joint second top scorer pulled up from training with calf tightness and faces a race against time to prove his fitness for the all-important match with the league leaders.
Although the Victory will be boosted by a Glory outfit not containing the striker, Glory coach Dave Mitchell believes his side can counter the loss.
"It's disappointing, it just sort of came out of the blue really and that's unfortunate," Mitchell said on Friday," Mitchell said.
"But we have a lot of players to pick from and they're looking for a chance.
"It's happened a few times in the past, people think, 'he's not playing and he's not playing', and their star players may be missing, but the replacement does really well because he's hungry and fits in."
There are no other injury concerns for the Glory coming out of last week's loss to Queensland Roar but Naum Sekulovski looks set to return from injury which is good news.
On the other hand, Ernie Merrick has an embarrassment of riches as their only injured player, Evan Berger, comes back into the squad after a hamstring strain.