Magilton to shuffle Victory pack

With Carlos Hernandez injured, Jim Magilton is considering his options as Melbourne Victory prepare for Sunday’s trip to Perth Glory.

Hernandez picked up a groin injury during Magilton’s first match in charge of Victory, Friday’s 1-1 draw with Adelaide United at AAMI Park in the A-League.

Victory are hopeful the Costa Rican playmaker will not be sidelined for more than a week, but his absence means an enforced rethink ahead of the trip to nib Stadium.

“We’re going to make a few changes,” Magilton said.

“Obviously Carlos is injured, so there’s an immediate change. I’m going to have a look at one or two that I haven’t seen before and see how I go.”

“He’s under the care of the medical team and we’ll assess it day by day I think.”

“To be fair to him, he probably played a little bit longer than probably he should have,” Magilton added, referring to Hernandez’s contribution in the grudge match with Adelaide.

“But again he wanted to win the game for us so coming off was the right thing to do, still we’ll see how he goes this week.”

Hernandez is not the only player to sit out the long trip to Western Australia.

Full-back Fabio is suspended, with Matthew Kemp set to replace him.

Magilton also hinted striker Danny Allsopp could also find himself out of the starting 11.

“Obviously Fabio misses the game, so Kempy comes in there,” he said.

“It’s important to give everybody an opportunity so, as I said, this week’s been about assessing again the staff, the group, the playing group and just seeing how we go.”

Despite the enforced changes, Magilton said Victory have no intention of settling for anything less than all three points in Sunday’s match, despite facing a Perth team unbeaten in their last five fixtures.

“I always go to win … and the team I pick will be a team going out there positive, going out there to get after what is a pretty resolute Perth side, so … I’m going there to win the game,” he said.

“I think they’re well organised, very disciplined, they have good players, a real attacking threat,” he added when asked about Perth’s qualities.

“What’s impressed me most about them, was (that) their work ethic in the team’s great and that’s probably why they’re on this unbeaten run.”