Melbourne City defender Samuel Souprayen’s frustrating battle with injuries continues, with French veteran ruled out of his team’s away clash with Newcastle on Saturday with an Achilles problem.
Souprayen, 36, only returned from a hamstring injury on City’s 0-0 draw with Central Coast Mariners last Saturday after missing a host of his club’s A-League and AFC Champions League games.
However, hopes of a run of games for the centre-back have been dashed by another injury that took City coach Aurelio Vidmar by surprise.
“Sammy’s been struggling with a thickened Achilles this week … I don’t know where that came from,” Vidmar said.
“He was absolutely fine and then after the game it started to swell up, so he definitely won’t be around for (Saturday’s) game.”
However, Vidmar wasn’t ready to rule Souprayen out of City’s midweek Champions League clash against FC Seoul in South Korea.
“We’re just waiting to see how he is after (Friday’s) training session on whether he travels,” the City mentor said.
However, former Socceroos attacker Andrew Nabbout is certain to miss both of City’s upcoming games due to concussion he suffered in his team’s draw with the Mariners.
“We have to respect the process. It’s an eight-day protocol, but with flying we’re not 100 per cent sure that’s the right thing to do, so the doctor made an assessment and recommended to not fly him, and just to give him a little bit longer,” Vidmar said.
Socceroos stalwart Mathew Leckie also remains sidelined with his latest hamstring injury.
“There’s a couple of things happening with him at the moment. It’s not just solely that he’s getting the hamstring injuries,” Vidmar said.
“It’s coming from other parts of his body, so they’re considering a lot of different things.
“It’s frustrating obviously for him because like any player he just wants to be on the park and making a contribution, and unfortunately he hasn’t been able to do that in terms of a longer, extended period for us.
“We’re all frustrated because we’ve done so many different types of things with him in terms of making sure that he’s right to be able to play.
“It’s more evident that he’s getting different referral pain around his back, around his hips, which are having a big contribution to why he’s at range, at stretching … pulling his hamstring.
“Now it’s about what we’re actually going to do to make sure that he’s able to come back without that sort of tightness and tension around those areas.”
Read related topics:Melbourne
