Graham Arnold will sweat on the fitness of his Australia players as they attempt to get through their final club games before the Asian Cup unscathed.
While Arnold faces an anxious wait, his counterparts in the A-League Men will be left pondering how to replace the stars they could be without for up to six weeks.
The Socceroos head to Abu Dhabi on January 1 for a pre-tournament camp ahead of the Asian Cup in Qatar, but many of the 26-man squad still have at least one game to play for their clubs before then.
It is a period of risk for Arnold, who lost winger Martin Boyle on the eve of last year's World Cup to a knee injury and is already without Brandon Borrello, Awer Mabil and Ryan Strain for the tournament.
"I will say I've got a very stressful 10 days ahead, because there's still games to be played," Arnold said.
"I picked this squad and I'll be watching to make sure that the boys get through the games, that's important."
The Socceroos boss has scope to change his squad before the tournament opener against India on January 13, and will hope his side will stick around long enough to get to the final on February 10.
That could open the door for Melbourne City duo of Jamie Maclaren and Mathew Leckie to find their way back into the national team set-up after being left out due to fitness concerns.
"Had they all been fit, they would have more than likely all gone and then that would have made us suffer a little bit," said City boss Aurelio Vidmar.
"The great thing for us now is that, especially Jamie, we haven't had a lot of training time and potentially he would've gone there and sat on the bench and not played too many minutes.''
Maclaren and Leckie were overlooked, but their City teammate and Socceroos left back Aziz Behich is one of four domestic-based players summoned into Arnold's squad.
Alongside Behich is Melbourne Victory striker Bruno Fornaroli, Western Sydney Wanderers goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas and Adelaide No.1 Joe Gauci.
Victory boss Tony Popovic said the club had the firepower to contend with the absence of the in-form forward, but did intimate his side had the scope to bolster their attack in January.
"At the start of the year, questions would have been, 'Can Bruno lead your line?' And now we're talking about how do we survive or play without Bruno," Popovic said.
"With Bruno going we are obviously looking at options, and if there is someone that we feel can add a lot more value - not just when Bruno's away but can add value when he's back - then we'll look into it.
"But it won't be just a player coming in to add another number."
The challenge of replacing Thomas and Gauci is likely to be a tough one for Wanderers boss Marko Rudan and Adelaide manager Carl Veart.
Rudan has rookie Jack Gibson as his No.2, while Veart has James Delianov as an understudy.
Should the Socceroos get to the final, both clubs would be without their first-choice goalkeepers for up to seven games at a crucial juncture in the season.
