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Defender Ivan Franjic’s battle to overcome injury isn’t yet occupying the thoughts of Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou.
Franjic’s participation in Saturday night’s Asian Cup final against South Korea is threatened by a hip injury.
But Postecoglou says he’s not tossing up contingency plans just yet.
“I’m not spending too much time thinking about it,” he said on Thursday.
“The information I have got at the moment is he’s a chance. So if he’s a chance, he’s in the same boat as the other 22 (squad members).”
That scenario may change on Friday evening when the Socceroos have a light training session.
Should Franjic be unable to train, Postecoglou will be forced to look at replacements for the influential full-back.
Franjic’s dash and drive from the right flank in defence has been vital to the game plan.
And if ruled out by injury, there’s no ready-made replacement; the only other natural right-back, Chris Herd, has returned to England after suffering a tournament-ending Achilles injury.
The most likely option would be to swing Trent Sainsbury to the flank from his usual central defensive posting.
That would result in Alex Wilkinson again being summoned, as he was when Sainsbury’s central defensive partner Matthew Spiranovic was suspended for the quarter-final.
Or Postecoglou could deploy reliable Mark Milligan in the back four, forcing a reshuffle in the midfield.
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