Sydney FC Head Coach Ufuk Talay has revealed the Sky Blues will be without joint top goalscorer Patryk Klimala in tomorrow night’s clash with Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium.
The Polish striker, who has scored seven times this season, is nursing a groin injury and a new born baby girl so will not travel to South Australia this afternoon.
He is expected to be back for the visit of Melbourne Victory next Saturday.
“Patryk’s got a strain in his groin,” said Talay. “Also at the same time, his wife gave birth to his second child, yesterday as well, so he’ll be staying back.
“Hopefully we will have him available for the Victory game.”
It gives Talay the chance to look at other options in the number nine position with the Head Coach suggesting there are two front runners to replace Klimala.
“We’ve got Woody (Patrick Wood), we’ve got JK (Jaiden Kucharski) that can come in and and fill a spot.
“Obviously they haven’t had a lot of minutes, but I still believe they’re capable of producing a certain level of performance.”
In better news Brazilian midfield general Leo Sena will be on the plane to Adelaide having overcome a knee complaint but it’s another week for a second midfielder.
“Corey’s (Hollman) is hopefully available for the Melbourne Victory game on the 28th December,” continued Talay. “But Leo is all good and he should be fine to play (against Adelaide).”
Talay is also confident fans will begin to see the very best of Douglas Costa in the coming weeks.
“I thought he started off well for us, obviously the injury with his hamstring hindered him a little bit, and obviously he’s not training at full capacity.
“Patience is key, but expectation is always going to be there on that type of player, he’s building slowly, we’ve got him minutes in certain games and we’re still trying to make sure we build him up where we don’t break him.
“At the same time we want him to perform and obviously take a take a leadership role within the group.”
Sydney FC’s home game double against Melbourne Victory is set to feature two live interactive performances with global phenomenon Bluey and her sister Bingo.
