Fitness to decide who starts for All Whites
Most All Whites camps Anthony Hudson knows his starting XI before the week even begins.
But this week is different for the New Zealand coach, with fitness set to be a key decision maker in terms of who lines up against Peru for the first leg of the World Cup playoff at Westpac Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
And that’s not the fitness issues which saw Clayton Lewis and Bill Tuiloma dropped for September’s Oceania World Cup qualifying final against the Solomon Islands. Rather, he just wants to see what sort of shape some of his key players arrive in Wellington in over the next few days.
Captain Winston Reid and vicecaptain Chris Wood played for their respective Premier League clubs over the weekend and are certain to start against Peru.
But the more contentious selection areas look set to be decided by fitness.
Ordinarily, Tommy Smith would have the advantage over Andrew Durante at left centre back, but the former has only just
returned to the Ipswich Town first team after a three-month injury layoff, while Durante missed a couple of weeks with a groin adductor injury before playing 90 minutes for the Wellington Phoenix on Saturday night.
Likewise, one would expect Storm Roux to start over Dane Ingham at right wing back, but Roux missed the Central Coast Mariners’ match against Ingham’s Brisbane Roar on Sunday with a minor ankle injury. Ingham started for the Roar.
All of that led Hudson to say he was in the rare position of not knowing who would be starting come Saturday.
‘‘The next two days for me are critical because I have to settle on an XI very quick,’’ he said after naming his 23-man squad yesterday.
‘‘Where I would have liked to known my XI now, I probably just need to take a day or so just to see where everyone is at physically after the travel, how they’ve done after these weekend’s games.’’
The squad contained veteran strikers Rory Fallon and Jeremy Brockie, who Hudson said were selected for what they brought both on and off the field.
Some were left to question why they were included given they had been out of favour for more than a year, but, really, only an injury crisis or desperation would see them get any meaningful gametime.
Realistically, Hudson will use only 16 or 17 players from his squad across the two legs, with the remainder needed in case of emergencies, or, in the case of Fallon, to boost morale around the camp.