Melbourne Victory head coach Grant Brebner has insisted that Robbie Kruse is not injured, after the attacker did not feature during the recent 0-0 draw with Western United.
The 32-year-old has put in bright performances for his side since his return from a long term injury that had him on the sidelines for nearly a year.
The former Bayer Leverkusen man put in a strong showing off the bench in the 1-0 defeat to Adelaide United, and followed it up with a solid shift in the 2-1 win against Perth when he played 79 minutes.
As the injury riddled attacker was replaced by young Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio, fatigue appeared to have kicked in as he slumped into a chair on the bench.
Meanwhile his notable absence in the recent goalless draw in a derby day clash dubbed as the ‘Battle of the Bridge’ raised some eyebrows concerning whether the creative attacker had suffered a setback.
“He’s absolutely not injured,” Brebner told reporters.
“It was touch and go, whether we put him in or not, but I swayed with the medical advice which was Robbie’s been out for 11 months, he’s played four games in about 15 days, there was a little bit of flagging of tightness after the game the other night.
“For me, I need Robbie to play a lot of games and if I risked him and he ended up losing game time I’d be kicking myself so he’ll be available for next weekend.”
Melbourne Victory travel to take on Brisbane Roar at the Dolphin Stadium on Saturday.
