Football
AAP 6y

Adelaide Olyroos Blackwood, Garuccio, Izzo in doubt for Melbourne City clash

Adelaide coach Marco Kurz will wait until Sunday before deciding whether to rush his Olyroos trio back in their crucial A-League clash against Melbourne City.

George Blackwood, Ben Garuccio and Paul Izzo all arrived back in Adelaide early on Thursday morning after the Australian under-23s lost to South Korea in China.

The trio are among seven players who were unavailable in their deserved scoreless draw against Sydney FC last week.

Kurz on Thursday confirmed Tayler Regan, Ryan Kitto, Nathan Konstandopoulos and Nikola Mileusnic have all recovered from various injuries.

Veteran Tarek Elrich also resumed full training for the first time since undergoing a knee reconstruction nine months ago.

"He starts today, the training with the group. He can now train the whole volume. That's a good news for us," Kurz told reporters on Thursday.

"For the coach, it's best if I have all players fit at training. That's good because they must perform good to stay in the squad."

Kurz said his Olyroos would need to pass a fitness on Saturday in order to be available to take on third-placed City.

United are just four points adrift of the league heavyweights with the same goal differential of plus-two.

Adelaide, who are aiming to extend their unbeaten run to four games for the first time this season, lost 2-0 to Melbourne at Hindmarsh Stadium earlier this year.

"They stay very compact, they play well for counter attacking," Kurz said.

"They have one of the best strikers in the offence. Ross [McCormack], he scores out of the game, he scores also after set pieces.

"We must be awake if we lose the ball ... they play very disciplined, they are strong and also very fit. I think it's a very good team."

Kurz also urged his team to remain focused on seizing all three points given the congested pack of teams between City and the eighth-placed Central Coast.

The six teams are separated by just 11 points.

"The focus is very high for the next games and then we can show step by step which area we can jump," Kurz said.

"Also we know we must get points in every game because the teams behind of us stay very close. You must play every game good in the A-League."

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