Perth Glory admit there is little margin for error in their quest for a Liberty A-League finals berth as they look to overcome a major injury blow.
Scans have confirmed star attacker Rylee Baisden tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during Perth’s 1-1 draw with defending champions Melbourne Victory.
American import Baisden, who has scored five goals this season, will undergo surgery in the coming weeks.
It’s an untimely blow at the halfway point of the season for ninth-placed Glory, who host Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
“It’s devastating because she’s been fantastic for us and fantastic for the competition,” head coach Alex Epakis said.
“With Rylee, you get fantastic energy and leadership throughout the group and you also get the quality on the field. To replace that isn’t easy.
“We’ve just started to find a really nice balance with where we’re at tactically and how we’re playing, especially going forward.
“We just want to try and keep it as smooth as possible and find a player who can fill that profile as best as possible.”
Glory will hope to cash in at Macedonia Park against a bottom-placed Phoenix side, who are yet to taste victory this season.
Wellington centre-back Kate Taylor is poised to return after missing five games with a foot injury but captain Lily Alfeld remains on the sidelines.
Midfielder Betsy Hassett will stay behind to prepare for Wednesday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup warm-up match between New Zealand and the United States.
Team-mates Mackenzie Barry, Grace Wisnewski, Paige Satchell and Emma Rolston are set to join the Football Ferns camp upon returning from Western Australia.
“Since they’ve come into the competition, I don’t think they’ve let anyone run over the top of them,” Epakis said.
“They are a very competitive team and we had some tricky encounters with them last year.”
After missing the finals last season on goal difference, Epakis acknowledged Perth were running out of time to climb into finals contention.
“We aren’t in a position where we can have slip-ups,” he said. “From here on in, we’re going into every fixture regardless of who we’re playing with the idea that we’re going all in to get maximum points.”
