Melbourne City will kick-off a brutally tight schedule against Western Sydney Wanderers while hoping gun attacker Holly McNamara is only a month off a Liberty A-League return.
City can regain top spot when they take on winless Western Sydney at Wanderers Football Park on Sunday, a clash which starts a run of three games in seven days.
They face Adelaide United away on Wednesday then take on defending champions Melbourne Victory in a derby next Saturday.
“It’s not ideal. We’ve been dealt the worst hand in terms of player welfare,” coach Dario Vidosic told reporters.
“I’m not sure who did the scheduling and the fixtures for this.
“To ask people to play three games in (seven) days … we’re the only unfortunate squad that’s been given that. It is what it is. We can’t change it, it’s not ideal.
“But we’re lucky enough that everyone’s OK and the biggest thing now is to try and look after players because it’s going to be very, very hard for the same players to play three games in such a short period of time.
“We’ll need the whole squad for this whole week upcoming.”
City have lost international Emina Ekic to a broken leg, while replacement Maria Jose Rojas is away with the Chilean national team.
Young guns Daniela Galic and Caitlin Karic could well be called upon in attack against the Wanderers.
Regaining McNamara in the next month will be a huge boost for City.
The Matildas young gun tore her ACL – her second such injury of her short career – last February and has been building towards a return.
“She’s training. She’s involved in pretty much everything in the training,” Vidosic said.
“We still need to be a little bit cautious in terms of tackling and that, the doctors and surgeons have said that contact needs to be a little bit limited, but she’s involved. She’s training and we’re looking after her.
“She’s looking good and we’re hopefully a month or so away from getting the green light where she can become involved.
“We’re really looking forward to welcoming her back.”
