Schwarzer Unlikely To Play Against Jamaica

Ante Covic, has been handed the perfect opportunity to press his claims for a spot between the posts in the Socceroos World Cup qualifying matches in November, after incumbent Mark Schwarzer virtually ruled himself out of this weekend’s match against Jamaica in London and Zeljko Kalac rolled an ankle at training yesterday.

Ante Covic, has been handed the perfect opportunity to press his claims for a spot between the posts in the Socceroos World Cup qualifying matches in November, after incumbent Mark Schwarzer virtually ruled himself out of this weekend-s match against Jamaica in London and Zeljko Kalac rolled an ankle at training yesterday.

Schwarzer, who has missed the last three matches for Middlesbrough with strained ligaments of his AC Joint, said from the national teams training camp in The Netherlands that he is very unlikely to be available for the match against the ‘Reggae Boyz- at Fulham-s Craven Cottage.

“Probably not,” was Schwarzer-s answer, when asked if he would play in Sunday-s game. “I have just started doing some light diving yesterday and today I hope to carry it on a little bit further.

“But at this stage, it-s a case of taking each day as it comes and trying to take it a step forward with each session and hopefully the shoulder reacts well and so far it has.”

While he is not far off being ready, Schwarzer thinks Sunday is just a touch too soon and doesn-t want to rush back for the sake of it.

“This weekend is really touch and go and would be really, really rushing it,” said a pragmatic Schwarzer. “If it was a necessity to play, I could probably play, but if we can get around it, then I think I need to make sure it-s 100% before going out there and playing.

Schwarzer was pressed on the issue of the defence make-up, especially with so many players either missing or in camp with injuries.

“Obviously it-s an issue at the moment because of the injuries that we have. At the moment we-ve just tried to have as many players out on the pitch as possible.

“So far we haven-t gone through anything specifically, we-ve just had some reasonable sessions without going too in-depth with what we are going to do defensively.”

The veteran of two previous World Cup campaigns, remained positive that with still a number of weeks to go before the qualifiers, the injuries within the squad would disappear and come November, Australia would be near full strength.

“That it-s six weeks away is good. Obviously if the game was to be played this weekend and the following week, we would be in a bit of a sticky situation, but we have still got those five and a half weeks or so left before the games, so it gives everyone plenty of time to try get fit and play some games before the vital qualifiers.”

The match in London against Jamaica is on Sunday at 1.00pm (10.00pm AEST) with SBS showing the match live with the broadcast commencing at 9.30pm.