Melbourne Heart FC’s Michael Beauchamp believes he is making progress in his return from injury ahead of the side’s clash with the Central Coast Mariners.
Melbourne Heart FC-s Michael Beauchamp believes he is making progress in his return from injury ahead of the side-s clash with the Central Coast Mariners.
The Socceroo defender was ruled out for a fortnight after suffering an ankle injury during the Club-s loss to Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.
While Beauchamp was in contention for a potential early return against the Fury, the 29-year-old said he wouldn-t have been fit to face the North Queensland side.
“I was a couple of days short (of playing in Saturday’s game against North Queensland) and wouldn’t have felt stable enough to go into that game and give 100 per cent, so it was a good decision to sit out,” he said.
“I trained on the weekend and pulled up not too bad, and today I did the full session so I’m happy with the way it’s progressed.”
After Heart secured its first ever victory over the weekend, the team is now firmly focused on repeating the dose against the Central Coast Mariners, who crashed the side-s welcome parade in round one.
Beauchamp said the result on Saturday night will help instil a winning mentality within the Heart squad.
“I don’t know if there was a weight (of pressure) on there in the first place, but it’s good to get the three points,” he said.
“Obviously we’re focusing on this game coming now and the more we can get into a rhythm of winning games, the better it’s going to be.”
The former Nurnberg player is adamant the next challenge facing the side is to produce a consistent 90 minute performance, with Heart showing glimpses of brilliance across the opening stages of the campaign.
“We’ve got to go the whole 90 minutes. It’s not good enough as a team if we’re only playing a good 45 minutes,” he said.
“I felt the second half was a lot better than the first, so if we can start the first half like the second it’s going to be great if we can go through the 90 minutes.”
