Border restrictions hinder replacement
Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay is hoping to solve the club’s current injury crisis by signing another central defender and bolstering his squad with reserve players.
But he conceded the current border restrictions have complicated the recruitment process as travellers arriving in Australia from overseas, including New Zealand thanks to the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community, are required to undergo two weeks in managed isolation.
‘‘We’re weighing up our options around how we can make that happen and how quickly we can make that happen,’’ Talay said.
‘‘We might have to have that delay of two weeks, but we have to make sure that when we do bring in someone it’s someone that can actually add value to the team, rather than just bringing numbers in.’’
The Phoenix signed Sydneybased striker Charles LokoliNgoy after losing David Ball, Jaushua Sotirio and Tomer Hemed to injury and suspension ahead of today’s game against Western Sydney Wanderers.
But Talay said he wanted to bring in another centre-back as well, after senior defender Luke DeVere was ruled out for the next 10-12 weeks with a longterm knee injury.
He said the plan was for a small group of reserve team players to travel to Australia when their Kiwi men’s premiership season concluded next weekend and would
continue to explore other options, locally and overseas.
‘‘First and foremost I’d like to bring in a few players from our academy, that’s why we have our academy, once we can get them across,’’ he said.
‘‘But at this stage we’re looking for a central defender and we’re going through the process of that, and hopefully we can get that over the line.’’
With DeVere sidelined with a long-term injury, Talay said Liam McGing, Te Atawhai HudsonWihongi and Tim Payne were all in contention to start at centreback against the fourth-place Wanderers today.
Joshua Laws is also available for selection after being cleared of serious injury, but may not start as a precaution.
‘‘I won’t give you the lineup now, but we’ve still got a few options. We have Liam, we’ve got Te there, Lawsy is available but will he start, I’m not too sure, and we’ve also got the option of playing Tim Payne there. ‘‘