Matthew Kemp certainly went above and beyond the call of duty for Melbourne Victory during the club’s recent 1-0 win in Queensland.
Matthew Kemp certainly went above and beyond the call of duty for Melbourne Victory during the club’s recent 1-0 win in Queensland.
Victory coach Ernie Merrick revealed on Wednesday that the defender was ill ahead of last Saturday night’s match and lost some 4kg during the win, which was achieved in humid conditions in Brisbane.
Kemp has not been able to train since but is not in doubt for the club’s next match against Central Coast at Telstra Dome on Friday week.
Merrick revealed on Wednesday just how proud he was of Kemp’s effort saying he only played the former Adelaide defender against Queensland because fellow defender Evan Berger was sidelined with a hamstring injury.
“I was really impressed with Matthew Kemp,” Merrick told www.melbournevictory.com.au
“He lost almost 4kg (during the game) and I wanted him to play because we had already lost one full-back in Evan Berger to a hamstring (injury) and I didn-t want to lose two full-backs so we asked Matthew to give us half a game and he did it really well.”
In a great display of courage Kemp actually lasted until the 53rd minute in the steamy conditions until finally making way for Nick Ward and certainly played a key role in keeping the scores locked at 0-0 at that stage before Archie Thompson’s 70th minute header allowed Melbourne to record its second straight away victory.
But Merrick admitted that Kemp has since paid a price for his bravery although he said the 28-year-old was on the improve.
“He is still struggling a bit and he hasn’t trained since but he should be right (for the Central Coast game),” Merrick said.
“We have told him to take it easy and he is not even in the gym at the moment.”
Merrick said Kemp was just the latest of several players to suffer illness at Melbourne with a flu bug having swept through the club.
“Jose (Luiz Lopez) has got it, Archie Thompson had it, so did Daniel Allsopp and (Kevin) Muscat and now our CEO (Geoff Miles) even has it.”
“It seems to be a 48 to 72 hour thing but in Matthew (Kemp’s) case it became a bit more of an infection but he is on antibiotics at the moment but he did a great job for us in Queensland.”
