Brisbane duo in-line for early return

Brisbane Roar striker Adam Taggart could be back as early as this weekend when the Roar travel to face Newcastle Jets in Sunday’s sole Hyundai A-League fixture.

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Taggart pulled up with a hamstring issue during last week’s 2-1 loss against Adelaide United and it was originally feared he would spend significant time on the sidelines.

However, the injury is not as bad as first thought with John Aloisi naming both him and Eric Bautheac in the squad to face the Jets although both will need to prove their fitness before kick-off.

Eric Bautheac

“Adam’s been building nicely so we’ll see how he goes and make a call on whether he starts or not closer to the game,” Aloisi said.

“Eric pulled up well from his knock, the swelling went down and trained fully on Wednesday.

“We’ll never put the player’s welfare before winning a football game, we want to win of course and we know Taggart is a great player, he scores a lot of goals and he has a great record against the Jets.

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“We have to make sure that if he does go out there and play that he’s not going to re-injure himself.”

In the event the 25-year old misses out, Aloisi said his squad had more than enough depth to cope with such an absence.

Forwards Dylan Wenzel-Halls and Nicholas D’Agostino are both options with Aloisi confident the duo could step up if required.

“We’ve seen that D’Agostino has scored down in Newcastle so it’s always nice for an attacking player to go back where he’s scored goals and Dylan performed really well when he came on against Adelaide so we know he can make that impact,” he said.

Seventh-placed Brisbane travel to McDonald Jones Stadium to face a home side sitting in eighth after the Jets were well-beaten by Melbourne City 3-0.

Despite failing to hit the heady heights of last season, Aloisi warned his side will have to remain wary of the Jets attack.

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“They’re still a very dangerous side the Jets they’ve got some good players that can hit you very quickly on the break,” he said.

“Their transition moments are key for them so we need to make sure we’re switched on defensively.

“We enjoy going to Newcastle, in the past Brisbane Roar have always seemed to do well down there and pick up a lot of points so we’re looking forward to this game.”

Aloisi also confirmed that Stefan Mauk was still undertaking tests to re-join full-time training as he continues his recovery from his concussion sustained last week.

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This article was originally published on the Hyundai A-League website.
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