Van Egmond has named a 19-man squad to take on Victory on Saturday.
Today Gary van Egmond named a 19-man squad for the Jets week 9 game against Melbourne Victory, to be played at Ausgrid Stadium this Saturday night.
Ben Kantarovski returns from Australian duties, whilst Michael Bridges, James Virgili and Ali Abbas are the other additions to this week’s squad and van Egmond will use Friday’s session to determine his final 15.
“We still have a few ifs and buts, Francis (Jeffers) is suffering from a groin injury and did not train with the group today and there are a couple that are still sore,” he said.
“Kasey-s (Wehrman) still pretty heavy at this stage, Ryan trained for the first time today and Tiago-s wife gave birth this morning so there are a few things happening within the squad that will impact on selection this week.”
Van Egmond confirmed that Ben Kennedy will sit out for the second week in a row and Matthew Nash, who impressed his coach with a clean sheet against Adelaide, will start as goalkeeper.
“Ben won-t play, he didn-t feel right and is still getting some dizzy spells,” the coach explained.
“I spoke to Nashy before last week-s game and told him the opportunity was there for him to cement his spot.”
Even the coach knows everyone would love to see a Bridges v Harry Kewell, however Bridges inclusion in the A-League team is uncertain.
“From his own admission, Bridgey is still a little bit underdone,” van Egmond said.
“He played in the Youth game against Roar and they got 45 minutes out of him and we rested him last week.
“This weekend he will definitely get game time but it is whether we decide to us him as an impact player against Melbourne or on the Sunday with the Youth.”
The Jets 19-man squad to take on Melbourne Victory is: 2. Taylor Regan, 4. Nikolai Topor-Stanley, 5. Tiago Calvano, 6. Ben Kantarovski, 7. Kasey Wehrman, 8. Jeremy Brockie, 9. Michael Bridges, 10. Ruben Zadkovich, 11. Tarek Elrich, 12. Jobe Wheelhouse (c), 13. Sung-Hwan Byun, 14. Labinot Haliti, 17. James Virgili, 19. Matthew Nash (gk) 22. Ali Abbas, 23. Ryan Griffiths, 24. Francis Jeffers 25. Jacob Pepper 30. Jack Duncan (gk
