Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic finds himself with a pleasant and unexpected selection headache ahead of Friday trip to Adelaide to take on the Reds, with Carlos Hernandez making an early return from international duty.
Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic finds himself with a pleasant and unexpected selection headache ahead of Friday trip to Adelaide to take on the Reds, with Carlos Hernandez making an early return from international duty.
Durakovic had said on Monday that he expected to be without the Costa Rican, who was set to play against Cuba this week after turning out for half an hour for Los Ticos against Brazil over the weekend.
But the cancellation of that match allowed Hernandez to return early and much to the surprise of his coach, he arrived at Victory training on Tuesday.
“I just turned up to training and Carlos was back,” Durakovic said. “It was a fantastic surprise for us.”
“He trained really well this morning and he’s in the mix for the Adelaide side on Friday night.”
With all of his other attacking options having had a chance to show themselves in the 0-0 draw against Sydney FC on the weekend, Hernandez faces a battle to get back in.
But Durakovic said he had far from made his mind up about what line-up he would take to Adelaide.
“We’ll make up our minds on Thursday afternoon,” he said. “I’ve got a wealth of players and it’s a good headache to have.”
He said he would consider possibly playing Hernandez up front in a pure striking role.
“We all know what Carlos can do to teams, so I’ve got that option,” he said. “It’s a wonderful option to have.”
The coach said Harry Kewell has pulled up well from his 90 minute showing on Saturday.
“He trained this morning and now he’s doing a bit of shooting practice. We’ve got a double session today.”
There is a bigger query over Archie Thompson, who received a nasty gash on his leg in the season-opener, but the coach feels he is recovering in time to play on Friday.
“Archie’s OK. He got six stitches in his shin but, Archie being Archie, he doesn’t want to miss a training session,” he said.
“I’m happy with Archie”
Billy Celeski has a scare with his knee on Saturday, but the club is confident it is just a cork, not a recurrence of the ACL tear which saw him miss close to 12 months of football in 2009.
