Melbourne City FC international marquee Robert Koren has been ruled out for around six weeks with a calf injury.
The news comes off the back of David Villa’s premature departure to New York City FC, as Melbourne confirmed today that the Spaniard will be recalled to the ‘Big Apple’ following the club’s Round Four clash against Adelaide United.
The Slovenian international is expected to make a return in December, continuing the similar misfortunes of last year’s marquee Orlando Engelaar, who did not play a competitive fixture until January after sustaining a broken leg.
The former Hull City and West Bromich Albion midfielder was in line to play against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon, but suffered a set-back during training last Friday.
“We had big hopes he would be available for the game against Newcastle,” coach John van ‘t Schip said on Wednesday morning.
“But he got a setback on the Friday when we were training at AAMI and from that setback we had the results in, he had an MRI, and it’s not looking better so he’s going to be out for a few weeks.
“The prognostication was about four weeks and then build up to play so that’s talking about five or six weeks.”
The 34-year-old has enjoyed a relatively injury free career and had featured throughout Melbourne’s preseason.
“It was 10 days before the start (of the season) and he got this injury which seemed very little,” van ‘t Schip said.
“But because he re-injured himself on the same spot it’s going to take longer, re-injury always takes longer they told me.”