Melbourne Heart FC winger Mate Dugandzic has been ruled out for the rest of the 2012-13 Hyundai A-League season after surgery to his broken right foot.
Melbourne Heart FC winger Mate Dugandzic has been ruled out for the rest of the 2012-13 Hyundai A-League season after surgery to his broken right foot.
Dugandzic was sidelined after colliding with Adelaide United goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic in the round seven clash at Hindmarsh Stadium on November 17.
Dugandzic-s initial prognosis on his fractured metatarsal was that he would miss 12 weeks; however, additional scans and yesterday-s surgery revealed the extent of damage to both bone and ligament and he is likely to be out for up to six months.
“It-s never great to lose such an important player so early in the season,” said Head Coach John Aloisi.
“Mate was a critical player for us least season and now the challenge is for another emerging player, like Golgol [Mebrahtu] or Ben [Garuccio], to step-up when they get an opportunity and prove that they can be an elite player, which Mate did last season.”
John Aloisi also ruled out the club recruiting an Injury Replacement Player to cover the loss of Dugandzic.
“We have enough attacking depth in the squad to cover the loss,” Aloisi said.
“We saw last week that players from our Youth League team were able to step up and help us get a result, so that-s the path we will go down if we need to.
