Verbeek confident of covering missing players

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek is confident that he has the players available to cover the loss of key players Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell, although he admitted the latter is still a chance of flying to Japan for the crucial World Cup qualifier in Yokohama.

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek is confident that he has the players available to cover the loss of key players Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell, although he admitted the latter is still a chance of flying to Japan for the crucial World Cup qualifier in Yokohama.

Emerton suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Blackburn Rovers match with Middlesbrough on the weekend, which will rule him out for nine months and effectively means all the remaining matches of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Kewell-s availability will depend on whether he plays his first game since before Christmas for Galatasaray this weekend. Verbeek and his staff will then assess if he should come to Japan in the event that does happen, although Verbeek wasn-t too optimistic that would be the case.

When asked about the bad Emerton-s injury was for the team, Verbeek was obviously extremely disappointed for him.

“Normally Brett is a starting player; we will miss him of course,” Verbeek said bluntly. “First of all it-s terrible for him; second of course for his club and last but not least for us.

“Of course it-s a loss, but in my year in Australia so far, we have always had those kind of problems. But this is a bad injury and it-s clear that he will be out till next season starts.

“Ok, bad for him, bad for us."

When asked how bad his loss will be for the rest of the World Cup qualifying campaign, especially as he had become a potent attacking weapon in recent games, Verbeek said he would be extremely hard to replace.

“Normally we have injuries that take one match, but I think he will be out for the rest of the campaign. That means five games for us. That happens in international football and he is always an important player in our team, but we have other players ready and available and that-s the way it works.”

“We don-t have players with the same quality, that-s clear. We don't have a second Brett Emerton available so we have to fill it in with other players with other qualities and that's what we're going to do.

“Don't ask me what I'm going to do yet because as always I will wait until after the weekend. I will have Plan A, B, C and D ready."

As for Kewell, Verbeek said the star attacker is on standby.

"I have Harry Kewell on a standby list so his club has a letter that in case it's necessary that we will invite him," Verbeek said.

"And what Harry told me is that if there's a chance he will play the weekend (for Galatasaray), that I can always call him. But he has to play on the weekend and then I can make up my mind."

Verbeek however is able to welcome back Emerton-s Vince Grella, who has missed the last couple of matches through injury and suspension, while Scott Chipperfield has been named and is being monitored by team physio Phil Coles in Switzerland, to ascertain his availability.

Craig Moore is the only Hyundai A-League player named in the 22-man squad, with Verbeek saying it was a combination of talented overseas, plus the A-League finals that meant he would only bring players that were definitely going to be in the final 18 man team to play against Japan.