Injuries threaten to derail United’s push

JACOB GRAMS while former A-League star Zenon Caravella also made a cameo on night two.

Their Wednesday and Thursday efforts were good enough to lock them into semifinal action today, but O’Hare said tired legs and a squad running thin could count against them.

“It’s obviously pretty different to football and it has taken a bit of getting used to,” he said.

“It’s not so much physical, but we have been playing a lot of minutes in a short space of time and playing on the hard concrete is pretty tough on the joints.”

Sargent was the first casual- ty – to a knee injury in the opening minutes of their first match, a 6-2 win against Redlynch, and O’Hare said the aches were building up.

He said plenty of players had fingers crossed Caravella could provide a much-needed boost for the do-or-die matches to come.

“Zenon made it down Thursday night and it was great to have him, because we needed some fresh legs,” O’Hare said. “He’s all class.

“Even though he’s a small guy, he has a big presence.”

Brisbane side Aletti Futsal looks to be the biggest rival to Cairns United and other Far North teams, having gone down only 1-0 to the star-studded United earlier in the men’s tournament.

O’Hare said the young FNQ Hotdogs were the most impressive of the local sides.

Only one international team, Nizanz FC from Vanuatu, has made the trek to Cairns for the 2017 event, but organisers are confident more will attend in future.

The women’s competition looks set to go down to the wire, with little separating Redlynch, Melbourne-based Kingston Royals and Cairns Vipers in the early stages.

The finals are on tomorrow.