Victory midfielder Rai Marchan returned to A-League Men’s action during Victory’s Round 19 trip to Sydney, marking the end of a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The Spaniard suffered a concussion blow during Melbourne’s January clash with Adelaide United away in South Australia, forcing him to spend close to two months without football.
Marchan remained closely monitored by Victory’s medical staff and explained the process of dealing with concussion and his road to returning to football.
“It was frustrating me, because at the beginning, from a ball, you don’t expect to have an injury from there,” Marchan explained.
“As soon as I started training, I felt that something was wrong, I got dizzy every time I tried to push a little bit harder.
“When you have an injury, an injured leg, an injured hamstring, something like that – you know the timing, you know the length of the injury. In this case, all they could say to me is ‘We will see’.
“I am really grateful for the Club, the coaching staff and of course, the medical staff who has helped me to understand a little bit more about concussions, and how the body responds to these kind of situations.”
Ahead of Monday’s homecoming double header at AAMI Park, where Victory’s Women will also be in action, Marchan has recognised the threat that is Western United while being confident in Victory’s ability.
“I know very well of Western United, I still remember Semi Finals from last year and of course that game we played at the beginning of the season in the Cup.”
Speaking on the side’s current situation, Marchan is committed to helping the Victory turn their fortunes around.
“We know that we are putting the effort in, we are training hard, but it’s not been enough. We have to make another step on the performance on Monday.”
“When you are in a club like Melbourne Victory, everyone has the level to, to perform and now we are the players who we are, we cannot think about the players who are injured and we have to perform.
“They make hard challenges and I think that we if we equal that, that effort, those challenges, we are going to be able to beat them.”
Monday’s fixture kickstarts a run of seven remaining games for the A-League Men’s season, five of which are at home, with 21 points for the taking.
Marchan will be looking to remain in Tony Popovic’s extended squad for a second week in a row in the build up to Monday’s match, set to be announced on Sunday.
Melbourne Victory host Melbourne City and Western United in an AAMI Park Double Header on Monday afternoon, with the A-League Women kicking off in the Derby from 3:20pm.
