Melbourne City coach Aurelio Vidmar says he’s never seen an injury crisis like the “frustrating as hell” one gripping his side after Andreas Kuen became the latest addition to the club’s injured cohort in their 2-0 win over Wellington.
Placed in an early ascendency by Harry Politidis’ first A-League Men goal before sealing the result in the 83rd minute through Nathaniel Atkinson, City put in their most comprehensive display of the season at AAMI Park on Friday evening.
Vidmar's men pressed with intent to deny the Kiwis a moment’s respite and dominated possession and territory.
“I think that was one of our better performances this year, in terms of what we want to do,” Vidmar said.
But with only four days until they must return to action at AAMI Park against Western United, a shadow was cast over the win by an innocuous-looking challenge from Paulo Retre sent Kuen to ground grabbing his hamstring in the 18th minute, leading to his substitution.
“He'll probably go and get scans in tomorrow or the day after and we’ll wait and see what happens,” the City boss said.
“It's disappointing because it's got to the point of being so ridiculous."
An absence for Kuen would mean City is missing eight first-choice players with injury.
Yonatan Cohen was ruled out for two months on Thursday with a medial cruciate ligament injury, joining Mat Leckie, Marco Tilio, Andrew Nabbout, Max Caputo, Alessandro Lopane and Jimmy Jeggo on the shelf.
While flagging that this was just the fourth soft tissue injury amongst this cohort, Vidmar said his club would review its training and treatment practices to see if it could improve.
It's now eight years since Wellington last won at AAMI Park and even longer since they beat Melbourne City there.
And Wellington was anaemic in their latest attempt to break this streak, credited with just two touches in their opponent’s penalty area on the stat sheet and managing just a single shot to City’s 21.
Losers of four of their past five games, the Phoenix will only leave home once in their next five fixtures - a stretch also encompassing the ALM’s mid-season transfer window - and coach Giancarlo Italiano acknowledged the crucial period ahead.
“The next month is imperative to our success,” he said.
“Within the group, we have to basically refocus and make sure that every one of these games are considered a final."
