NRMA Insurance Head Coach Tony Popovic has effectively ruled out Shinji Ono competing in Sunday’s match against Wellington Phoenix though said that the player himself is confident of proving his fitness in time.
NRMA Insurance Head Coach Tony Popovic has effectively ruled out Shinji Ono competing in Sunday-s match against Wellington Phoenix though said that the player himself is confident of proving his fitness in time.
Substituted off at half time during last Friday-s match against Brisbane Roar, Popovic says he isn-t going to risk Ono if he isn-t 100%.
“He-s got a slight groin strain and we-re obviously happy it-s not a bad one but he would have to have a great recovery by Friday to have a chance,” said Popovic.
“At best he-s 50/50 for our match against Wellington but at the moment we don-t expect him to be out there.”
While the 3-1 loss wasn-t the result Wanderers were after, Popovic believes that there was a lot more to the match than the score line suggests.
“We learnt some lessons from that game, we performed well but there are areas we can improve and the lost the match which we aren-t happy about but we-ll move on.
“I-m really proud of the response from the boys after going down, they really took the game to Brisbane and on another day we could have come back to draw or win that match.
“The boys feel quite good and are looking forward to getting on the track and preparing well for our next match against Wellington.”
The NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers take on Wellington Phoenix this Sunday at Westpac Stadium live on Fox Sports 1 with kick-off at 3pm.
