Young gun James Virgili today joins the Newcastle Jets squad to take on Wellington at Westpac Stadium, two years after the he became the A-League’s youngest ever player at the same ground.
Young gun James Virgili today joins the Newcastle Jets squad to take on Wellington at Westpac Stadium, two years after the he became the A-League-s youngest ever player at the same ground.
On that occasion, a then 16-year-old Virgili came on as a substitute in the Jets- 3-0 loss. Should he gain selection this Saturday, Virgili could be part of yet another record-making outing as the team looks to extend its unbeaten run to eight matches.
The Australian Under-20s representative will be joined by fellow young gun Jacob Pepper after both were called into the senior squad following suspensions to Ljubo Milicevic and Kasey Wehrman.
Slovenian striker Tomislav Misura also joins the squad, which will be captained
defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
The Jets were dealt further injury blows today, with midfielder Ruben Zadkovich ruled out of this Saturday-s clash with a lower back problem. He is expected to be available for selection for the side-s Monday week clash against Melbourne Victory.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed today Ben Kantarovski-s anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee sustained damage in a training mishap earlier this week.
Kantarovski underwent surgery today in Sydney to reconstruct his ACL and repair a lateral meniscus tear and is facing a six-month recovery.
Newcastle Jets squad: 40. Matthew NASH (gk), 2. Taylor REGAN, 3. Adam D-APUZZO, 4. Nikolai TOPOR STANLEY, 11. Tarek ELRICH 13. Sasho PETROVSKI, 14. Labinot HALITI, 17. Marcello FIORENTINI, 18. Marko JESIC, 19. Ali ABBAS, 22. Kaz PATAFTA 24. Francis JEFFERS, 27. Tomislav MISURA, 31. Jacob PEPPER, 26. James VIRGILI, 1. Ben KENNEDY
*one to be omitted*