Melbourne skipper Kevin Muscat is confident he can play a significant role in Victory’s Championship defence despite being ruled out for at least four weeks with a hamstring tear.
Melbourne skipper Kevin Muscat is confident he can play a significant role in Victory’s Championship defence despite being ruled out for at least four weeks with a hamstring tear.
Muscat suffered a small tear in his left hamstring in Melbourne’s opening match against the Central Coast last Thursday and will spend at least a month on the sidelines. But the 36-year-old believes he has the residual fitness and the personnel at his disposal to get back onto the pitch and back to his best.
“I’m pretty confident that doing the rehab and giving it 100 per cent, that I’ll come back and have an influence on the majority of the season,” Muscat said.
“I’m hoping to come back a lot sooner. But I’ve obviously got to do my rehab. I’ve got full confidence in my medical staff here and last season I had a hamstring tear and missed four weeks and played every game after that.”
Muscat suffered the injury in the second half of the 2-0 loss to the Mariners and said having suffered a similar injury before in his career, was aware immediately of what had happened.
“It was just in a body-to-body contest, and I had to stretch by back a little. I felt it burn. I knew it was a hamstring straight away, so I was keen to get off the field as soon as possible,” he said.
Victory football operations manager Gary Cole said Muscat has a good record of recovering well from soft-tissue injuries.
“This is a new injury, similar to last year, where he had a small tear in the pre-season, and he recovered to play every minute of every game,” Cole said.
“We expect him to be out for around four to six weeks. Hopefully back for the Newcastle game in Melbourne. We just look forward to Kevin having the same leadership role with the club. He adds such great value to the team on or off the field.”
