Melbourne City hope they have finally gotten to the bottom of a "frustrated" Mathew Leckie's injury woes - now they have to fix them.
The Socceroos veteran is currently sidelined with yet another hamstring strain, with his hopes of reaching a fourth World Cup fading.
Leckie, 34, has been limited to just four appearances this season and played just 28 A-League Men games across the previous two years.
He also hasn't played for Australia since the June 2024 win over Palestine, when Graham Arnold was still coach, with injuries forcing him to withdraw from multiple camps under Tony Popovic.
That included after playing through a hamstring injury to deliver a man-of-the-match performance in last season's grand final win.
"There's a couple of things happening with him at the moment," coach Aurelio Vidmar said ahead of City's clash with Newcastle on Saturday.
"It's not just solely that he's getting the hamstring injuries. It's coming from other parts of his body. So they're considering a lot of different things."
Leckie is a seasoned professional but has previously opened up on his frustrating "stop-start" run.
"He's pretty good, Lecks, he's a pretty laidback guy, so his character probably helps him in that sense," Vidmar said.
"But it's frustrating obviously for him because like any player he just wants to be on the park and making a contribution, and unfortunately he hasn't been able to do that in terms of a longer, extended period for us.
"So he's frustrated. We're all frustrated because we've done so many different types of things with him in terms of making sure that he's right to be able to play.
"Less work in the gym, more work in the gym, less running, more work with a group, all sorts of different things to get him in a good space.
"And when we thought, 'oh, we found the formula', then something else happens."
Vidmar indicated Leckie's injuries were related to hip and back issues and expected the club to soon provide further details regarding a plan for him.
"But in this extended period that it's happened again, it's more evident that he's getting different referral pain around his back, around his hips, which are having a big contribution to why (when) he's at range at stretching, he's pulling his hamstring," he said.
"He's not actually sprinting when he's done the hamstrings, it's just a reaching motion. So a lot of issues around his hips and things like that.
"So we think we've got it nutted down to a certain extent, but now it's about what we're actually going to do to make sure that he's able to come back without that sort of tightness and tension around those areas."
Andrew Nabbout (concussion) won't travel to Newcastle, or South Korea for Wednesday's huge Asian Champions League Elite clash with FC Seoul, while Samuel Souprayen (achilles) is sidelined for at least the Jets clash.
But City should regain Nathaniel Atkinson and Elbasan Rashani for the two games.
