The Jets have named an 18-man squad for Saturday night’s Round 16 clash with the Brisbane Roar at Hunter Stadium.
The Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets have named an 18-man squad for Saturday night’s Round 16 clash with the Brisbane Roar at Hunter Stadium.
Marquee striker Emile Heskey has been included in the squad and head coach Gary van Egmond is hopeful the former England international will feature in some capacity come Saturday.
“We-ll know more tomorrow, but Emile is very keen to be a part of it and we-re pretty confident he will be for this weekend,” van Egmond said.
After an injury-scare at training on Tuesday, Ruben Zadkovich completed a full session on Thursday and has also been named to take on Brisbane.
“Ruben trained with the group today, so from the initial fear of what it was to where it is now, we-re really happy,” van Egmond said.
“He went through training today with the group and was fine and has pulled up okay.”
Van Egmond said Jets captain Jobe Wheelhouse is in-line to make is return to action after a month on the sidelines with a knee injury, while Scott Neville has also recovered from a hamstring injury.
“For Jobe it-s more a case that he needs games. He-s been training with the group for a week and he probably needs a bit more match time,” van Egmond said.
“We-ll look to try and balance that between first team training and games on the weekend and maybe a youth game this weekend for a small amount of time.
“He can definitely come off the bench because he probably can sustain a good half-hour and maybe even stretch it out for 45 minutes and he-ll probably be more effective with the pace of the game gone a bit as well.”
Meanwhile, Josh Mitchell is still a week away from returning to the fold as he continues his recovery from a knee complaint.
“Josh Mitchell came back and did a controlled training session today,” van Egmond said.
“He won-t be involved this weekend, but he-ll definitely be right for next weekend.”
Dominik Ritter has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury, while Ben Kantarovski (knee) is also unavailable.
The Jets will finalise their starting eleven 90 minutes prior to kick off on Saturday evening.
Newcastle Jets squad: 1. Ben Kennedy 2. Scott Neville, 7. James Brown 8. Ruben Zadkovich, 9. Emile Heskey, 11. Connor Chapman, 12. Josh Brillante, 13. Sam Gallaway 14. Taylor Regan 15. Craig Goodwin, 16. Jobe Wheelhouse 17. James Virgili, 18. Jacob Pepper, 19. Michael Bridges 20. Mark Birighitti, 22. Adam Taggart, 23. Ryan Griffiths, 25. Mitch Cooper. *three to be omitted
In: Jobe Wheelhouse (returns from injury), Scott Neville (returns from injury), Mitch Cooper (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Josh Mitchell (knee), Ben Kantarovski (knee), Dominik Ritter (hamstring)
Brisbane Roar squad: 1. Michael Theo (gk), 2. Matt Smith (c), 3. Shane Stefanutto, 4. Matt Jurman, 5. Ivan Franjic, 6. Erik Paartalu, 7. Besart Berisha, 8. Massimo Murdocca, 11. Ben Halloran, 15. James Donachie, 17. Mitch Nichols, 18. Luke Brattan, 20. Matt Acton (gk), 21. James Meyer, 22. Thomas Broich, 24. Nick Fitzgerald, 25. George Lambadaridis. *two to be omitted
In: James Donachie (returns from suspension), Luke Brattan (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Jack Hingert (hip injury – 4-6 weeks), Do Dong-Hyun (knee – 2-3 weeks), Henrique (hip injury – 1-2 weeks)
Referee: Strebre Delovski
Assistant referee 1: Lance Greenshields
Assistant referee 2: Ryan Gallagher
Fourth official: Adam Gehrig
Newcastle Jets v Brisbane Roar
Date: Saturday, 12 January 2013
Venue: Hunter Stadium
Gates open: 6.45pm
Kick off: 7:45PM
Live and exclusive broadcast on FOX Sports 1HD and Sky Sports 2
ABC Radio Coverage – 1233 Newcastle and online
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #JETSvROAR
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