Velupillay not yet out of ALM grand final but faces uphill challenge
Melbourne Victory won't rule Nishan Velupillay out of this week’s grand final against Melbourne City but coach Arthur Diles admits the Socceroo attacker faces a major uphill battle to feature.
Melbourne Victory are refusing to rule Nishan Velupillay out of this week’s A-League Men grand final against Melbourne City, but coach Arthur Diles has admitted to JDL Media that the Socceroo attacker faces a major uphill battle to feature.
Velupillay went down with an injury to his lower right leg in the final moments of the first half of Victory’s clash with Auckland last week, managing to limp through to half time but emerging to watch the second stanza on crutches and with ice wrapped around his ankle.
Second-half goals from Zinédine Machach and Bruno Fornaroli subsequently wrecked Auckland’s hopes of a fairytale and set up a first-ever Melbourne Derby decider but by that stage, a cloud had already descended not only on the 24-year-old’s ability to feature in that game, but also in a Socceroo squad set to be selected this week.
But while Diles said post-game that it “doesn't look good”, scans performed upon Victory’s return may have given the attacker a small, but still very unlikely, glimmer of hope.
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“The scans have come back better than we anticipated, which is great,” Diles told JDL Media.
“In terms of whether he will be ready for the match at this stage? If you ask me today, I'd say it's highly unlikely.
“He wants to give himself every opportunity to be up for it. We'll give him every opportunity to be up for it, and we'll go hard these next few days to try and get him up for it.
“But in the end, like we've done all year, a player's health and well-being will always come first. And if he's got 100% ready to play on the weekend, we aren't going to risk that.”
Velupillay, however, isn’t the only injury concern that Diles has to deal with heading into Saturday.
Central defender Brendan Hamill suffered a ruptured ACL during the first leg of the semifinal against Auckland, while Kasey Bos suffered an injury to his heel that required stitches and forced him to miss the second leg. Adama Traoré has also been sidelined through injury, as has goalkeeper Mitch Langerak, who suffered a “setback” in his recovery from a foot injury last week.
It means that Diles is in for a busy week as he awaits to see which of his injured cohort, if any, can return for the grand final and how he'll go about formulating contingencies for how he’ll play with or without them. But he’s confident that after adjusting their shape and finding solutions to knock off the premiers last week, his side will be able to do so again on Saturday.
“It was a crazy three days,” Diles reflected. “We had four defenders down in three days. Touch wood, we've managed the team and the injury front really well this year, and that's a credit to the medical staff, physical staff, coaching staff, and the players themselves.
“But you come to a point last week where it was like 'What the hell is going on here? When it rains, it pours!' The only thing you can do is say 'Ok, let's go. It's happened. You can't control that. Okay, what's the next solution?'
“Is it a player coming in who hasn't [played]? Is it a player playing in a different position? We had to come up with a solution.
“In the end, that's what training is for, and that's what squads are for; if and when these moments arise, you're ready for them and you can navigate through them.
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“Thankfully for us, we've got some good young players that have stepped up in the last month and done really well. And that's helped us.”
Adding to it all, Diles and his side’s preparations will take place against the backdrop of the biggest game in the A-Leagues’ 20-year history in Melbourne: Victory and City clashing with a title on the line for the first time.
More than 16,000 tickets were sold on the first day of sales on Monday and the clash at AAMI Park already looks certain to sell out.
Given the media interest set to be generated by the marquee clash, it will be impossible to pretend that this is just another week, but, for Diles, trying to keep his side focused as much as they can is one of his top priorities.
“That's what's at the forefront of everything – that there's a job to do,” said Diles. “Everything else is second fiddle to that.
“We've got to make sure that we don't drop the ball this week -- make sure we don't miss a beat, we dot our Is we cross our T's, and make sure, in terms of a process and preparation, that we're ready for the match, because that's our job.”
Sounds like he will be right for the rooster even if not for victory
Any word on the Triantis situation?