City not in hurry with star
STAR Gold Coast City signing Jacob Boutoubia is anxious to get into some action with his new NPL Queensland club but may have to bide his time.
The 23-year-old attacking midfielder is City’s key offseason recruit despite having a knee reconstruction mid-2016 when he was with Sydney Olympic.
Boutoubia made a successful return to the playing field last weekend when he scored a hat-trick for City’s youth side against Sunshine Coast.
Now he wants more, although coach Grae Piddick says the club will continue to adopt a safety-first approach for tonight’s fixture against South West Queensland Thunder at the Runaway Bay Super Sports Centre at 6.30pm.
“I played 70 minutes with the youth side to see how the knee pulled up,” Boutoubia said.
“I spoke to Grae and it looks like I will be in the youth one more week — but I may even be on the bench for the first side on Saturday night.” He could be on the bench depending on how the knee feels after his turnout for the youth.
“I haven’t finalised my squad yet because there are some things we have to look at,” Piddick said.
“But we’re cautious with Jacob that he has played only one game since the middle of last year.
“He’s an important player and we’re not going to risk anything if things are not right.”
Boutoubia conceded that his return was a long time coming.
“You can’t do much while you’re recovering and it gets so frustrating,” he said.
City appear to be a massive chance of taking the points tonight going on their 2-1 winloss start to the season.
The Thunder, though, have started with a draw and two losses.
They went down 4-1 to Brisbane City, drew 2-2 with Sunshine Coast and lost 1-0 to Redlands United.
Gold Coast have beaten both Brisbane City and Sunshine Coast so far.