Jeggo, Kuen add to City's growing injury woes

When it rains, it pours for Melbourne City, as Jimmy Jeggo and Andreas Kuen become the latest senior players forced to the sidelines ahead of a New Year's Eve showdown with Central Coast.

The injury cloud hanging over Melbourne City has grown even larger heading into the new year as Jimmy Jeggo and Andreas Kuen join those in the increasingly crowded trainer’s room at Casey Fields.

City boss Aurelio Vidmar confirmed on Tuesday morning that Jeggo had suffered a partially-torn achilles in the warm-up of their 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory and would be sidelined for an extended period and that Kuen would miss their New Year’s Eve clash with Central Coast with a foot injury. The duo become the latest in a long line of injuries to first-choice players Vidmar is confronting as City looks to keep pace as the A-League Men's table begins to properly separate, the coach already dealing with the absence of attacking quartet Max Caputo, Andrew Nabbout, Mat Leckie, and Marco Tilio.

One of the competition’s most well-credentialled units when fully fit, that group has been restricted to a combined eight appearances across City’s opening eight fixtures; Nabbout, Tilio, Leckie, and Jeggo accounting for 110 games of Socceroos experience unavailable for the trip to Gosford, alongside the club’s leading creative force this season in Kuen. But while Nabbout has been lost for the season with an ACL, Vidmar at least struck a positive tone on the other three, saying that Leckie and Caputo were two or three weeks away and that Tilio would be able to move into the next phase of his recovery from a torn hamstring tendon after positive scans.

“Unfortunately, we had the issue with Jimmy Jeggo before the Victory game and he's going to be out for quite a while with an Achilles tendon injury,” said Vidmar. “Andreas will also be missing this week because he's had a couple of significant stompings on his foot in the Victory game and he hasn't been able to train, put on a football boot, or do a hell of a lot of running. He hasn't joined us in any of our tactical work this week, so we've had to give him just a couple more days to get him ready for the [Wellington] game.

“We've had wretched luck with injuries and not so much soft tissue injuries -- I think we've only had three soft tissue injuries, which is pretty good -- but it's all those other fractured ankles, a couple of knees, the syndesmosis, all the ankle injuries. You can't prepare for that. They're the ones that have really hurt us.”

The A-League Men’s transfer window set to open on January 16 and Jeggo’s long-term absence dealing another blow to his veteran depth, Vidmar also confirmed that planning was underway about possible reinforcement.

“We're looking at all options, the possibilities,” he said. “That's an ongoing discussion with Michael [Petrillo, City’s director of football], Pedj [Radinovic, City’s GM of football operations], and our CEO Brad [Rowse]. The window doesn't open until the 16th but we're already trying to get our heads together and seeing what the situation is and what the availability is of trying to bring someone in is.”

After replacing him in the 75th minute of the Christmas Derby, 18-year-old Kavian Rahmani making his first-ever senior start in place of Kuen is one of the possibilities that City have examined for their trip to Gosford; Vidmar made sure to note that even if the club brought in fresh faces in January, Jeggo’s long-term absence would open the door for further opportunities for younger players to see the field.

The most obvious young candidate to fill the midfield void would be 19-year-old Young Socceroos midfielder Zane Schreiber, who brought up his fourth start of the campaign when he replaced Jeggo in the starting lineup against Victory. Poached from Sydney FC’s academy last year on a deal that takes him through the end of the 2025/26 campaign, the holding midfielder was a part of Trevor Morgan's squad that secured qualification for next year's AFC U20 Asian Cup in September, starting in wins over Afghanistan and Palestine, and has been touted – by both those at City and outside it – as having the potential to work his way into the senior setup in future years.

And while Vidmar didn’t go that far, he did say the youngster would benefit from a run of games.

“Not just with Zane, but I think most of the young players, the more they play, the more resilient they get,” said Vidmar. “Where they play one game and then you take them out of the team and then three weeks later, they need to play again, sometimes it's hard to get continuity.

“He's got an opportunity now to have quite a few games back-to-back. But he is also learning the game; he's learning about his body, he's learning how to work hard, all these things. These things, you don't have the complete package yet, but he has enough quality, and he's a smart footballer that, in time, we know that he's actually going to be quite a good footballer.”

Hosting their traditional New Year’s Eve game, the Mariners will welcome City to town not only smarting from a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Auckland over the weekend but also the tongue-lashing delivered by their coach Mark in the aftermath of that defeat, in which he was scathing in stating that there had been an “internal disciplinary matter” surrounding some players preparation for the game, which came three days after Christmas.

“If I’m honest with you, a bit of preparation before wasn’t conducive,” Jackson said post-defeat.

“Some players not preparing for the game right but that’s an internal matter. I’ve been asked before why certain players are missing from the team and squad, and that’s why. It’s an internal disciplinary matter.”

His side afforded the luxury of no game over the weekend, Vidmar reported no such headaches on Tuesday – City players received a three-day break over the Christmas period before returning to full training – but he expected a response from the Mariners after their scolding.

“I wouldn't expect anything else there,” said the coach. “There's so small differences between every team; you can have a good day, you can have a bad day. But generally, the Mariners are always super competitive. They're strong. Their culture has always been very good.

“It's always a tough game going there and doubly so is the fact that it's a New Year's Eve clash, the fans are probably going to come out in droves, and there's always a bit of a spectacle on that night anyway.

“Yes, we're probably a little bit undermanned, but we've been undermanned for most of the season anyway.”