Sydney FC midfielder Anthony Caceres has revealed the reason behind his late arrival into the Sky Blues AFC Champions League squad in Doha.
The 28-year old arrived on Thursday morning and was forced to watch his team-mates battle it out with Shanghai SIPG from his hotel room quarantine while he awaited a negative coronavirus test result.
VIDEO: Caceres On His Late ACL Arrival
ACL: Sydney FC’s Quarantined Arrival
However, he had pretty good reason for not being on the field.
“My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl,” he said. “She had to spend a few days in hospital and I stuck around until she was home and I knew she was well.
“She is now, she fed well in hospital, put on the weight she needed to put on and she’s healthy so I’m here now and happy to be around the boys again.
“It’s amazing (to be a father for the first time), she caught us all by surprise, we thought a boy was joining us but a beautiful baby girl came out and she’s got me wrapped around her little finger already.
“We are over the moon and the whole family is buzzing.”
Caceres finally got back on the field in last night’s training session and feels he was up to speed having kept up a good level of fitness in Sydney.
“I actually got a few sessions in with the youth team, they were great to be around making me feel young again.
“Now I’m back joining the boys and getting moving again after a long trip, but feel good overall.
“I thought we deserved much more from the opener but we’ll look to rectify that and pick up as many points as possible.”
Sydney FC will face Korean Champions Jeonbuk in their next Group H match next Wednesday evening (9pm AEDT) with the match live on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.
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