Farina delays Del Piero decision

Sydney FC coach Frank Farina will make a late call on Alessandro Del Piero’s availability for Saturday’s Sydney derby at Allianz Stadium.

Del Piero is struggling with a recurring hamstring injury that kept him out of last week’s 2-1 win away to Wellington.

The Italian did not train with the team on Thursday, but he did have a light session on his own and Farina is hopeful he’ll play a part in the match.

“You’d like to be in a situation where there was no question about him playing, but there is still that little bit of doubt there,” Farina said.

“But we’ve still got 48 hours.”

The Sky Blues will be boosted by the return of Terry Antonis and Brett Emerton, who missed the last two matches while on national duty with the Socceroos in Hong Kong.

Sydney remain at the bottom of the ladder, but are only three points behind fourth-placed Western Sydney Wanderers FC.

Farina knows it will take a lot more work to start climbing up the ladder.

“Look we’re still bottom, so we’re looking up – looking up at everyone else,” he said.

“We’ve got to talk about winning games of football, or picking up points.

“We’ve done that the past two weeks and as long as we continue to do that we’ll rise up the table.”

Sydney will be without Terry McFlynn on Saturday as he is serving a one-match ban for his red card last week, with either Emerton, Antonis or Hagi Gligor the likely replacement.

But Farina indicated that might be the only change to the side that beat Wellington.

“No one really deserves to miss out from last weekend, but that decision will be made tomorrow after the final session,” Farina said.