Melbourne Heart FC vice-captain Matt Thompson has declared himself a’ 50-50’ chance of returning to fitness in time to face Gold Coast United on Friday night at AAMI Park.
Melbourne Heart FC vice-captain Matt Thompson has declared himself a- 50-50- chance of returning to fitness in time to face Gold Coast United on Friday night at AAMI Park.
The midfielder has been out of action since spraining his knee during Heart-s 1-3 loss to Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium on January 29.
While any injury is untimely, Thompson-s enforced absence occurred at the most inopportune time, with fellow creative fulcrums Aziz Behich, Mate Dugandzic and Fred unavailable through international duty and injury respectively.
Having trained strongly over the last five days, Thompson was bullish in assessing his chances of returning to action, declaring himself a certainty to be back in the fray ahead of Heart-s match with the Central Coast Mariners on February 26.
And the four-time Socceroo refused to rule himself out of Heart-s upcoming must-win clash with Gold Coast United, sparking hope of an early end to his time on the sidelines.
“It-s progressing pretty well. I trained with our fitness coach Tom Reddin on Saturday, the day the boys were playing, and surprisingly, I pulled up pretty well,” he said.
“We-re still 50-50 for this week, but at worst, I definitely think I-ll be back the week after.”
Sitting sixth on the Hyundai A-League table, two points clear of seventh place, Heart-s recent run of results has seen the Club fall back to the pack, when a home final appeared on the cards at the turn of the year.
With many searching for answers to Heart-s downturn in form, Thompson believes the solution is much
simpler than people suggest.
“Just get back to the basics. When we went through that run undefeated, we were tough to beat, compact and made it tough for other teams to create opportunities,” he said.
“We-ve been slipping in that department at the moment, but if we get back to basics, and work as a unit, we-ll get back to those winning ways.”
