Melbourne’s Merrick dealing with Thompson injury

Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick says the club just has to deal with the injury to striker Archie Thompson and get on with the job at hand.

The Victory today confirmed that Thompson will be out of action for up to four weeks after a hairline fracture was found in his foot and Merrick said he expects him to be back for the second week of the A-League finals.

"It's not good news," Merrick told Sportal. "Archie has a very small hairline fracture of a bone in his foot. Our treatment has been spot on all the way and our surgeon has suggested that it doesn't need surgery at all.

"He has to wear one of those moon boots to take the weight and stress off his foot for about two to three weeks.

"Another week of training after that and he should be right to play for us in four weeks which is the second part of the finals series."

The Victory take on North Queensland Fury tomorrow night at Etihad Stadium and along with Thompson, will be without skipper Kevin Muscat who is serving a two-match ban.