Brisbane Roar star duo Thomas Broich and Henrique participated in their first full training session for weeks this morning as Head Coach Ange Postecoglou looks to confirm the attacking pair’s involvement in this Saturday’s clash against Sydney FC.
Brisbane Roar star duo Thomas Broich and Henrique participated in their first full training session for weeks this morning as Head Coach Ange Postecoglou looks to confirm the attacking pair-s involvement in this Saturday-s clash against Sydney FC.
Broich and Henrique stayed behind in Brisbane last week as their teammates travelled around the country for the two fixtures against Perth Glory and Adelaide United with Roar assistant coach and football conditioning coach Ken Stead overseeing the final stages of the pair-s recovery from their respective injuries.
The German playmaker hurt his heel playing against Newcastle Jets at Ausgrid Stadium seven weeks ago and while he recovered in time to play the Glory at home the next week, Broich-s injury was more severe than originally thought and has since missed eight Hyundai A-League games.
Livewire Henrique has been out of action since limping off against the Sky Blues at Kogarah in early December with a knee complaint.
After a lively training session in the searing Brisbane heat, Postecoglou told media this morning he was quietly confident both players would be fit to play at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
“They trained really well this morning,” he said.
“It-s the first time I-ve seen them out there since they-ve been injured and they look really good.
“They-re both a good chance to be involved on the weekend but we-ll see how they pull up after today because it was a pretty solid session for them but I-m optimistic about it.”
With the Sydney defence leaking nine goals in their past three outings, the news is set send chills down the spines of Vitezslav Lavicka and his players.
Henrique-s goal-to-game ratio so far this season has been tremendous, finding the back of the net four times in just seven appearances, while Broich-s two month hiatus from the squad still sees him joint-top of the league-s goal assist tally with five, alongside Central Coast Mariners- Michael McGlinchey and Aziz Behich of Melbourne Heart.
While luck hasn-t been on Brisbane-s side in recent times, Postecoglou pointed to the squad-s unwavering commitment to help maintain their focus as the business end of the season looms closer.
“They-re really bubbly, they-re positive because we played well,” he said.
“Things didn-t go for us, they haven-t been going for us for the past few games but overall, our play has been pretty good apart from over in Perth.
“We-re showing some promising signs and certainly from Saturday, I couldn-t be happier with the way we performed.”
