Socceroos winger Daniel Arzani's World Cup audition at Melbourne City is set to begin in earnest against lowly Western Sydney.
Arzani had thrust himself back into Socceroos coach Tony Popovic's plans during his stint at Melbourne Victory but minimal gametime at Hungarian club Ferencvaros had left him on the outer again.
The 27-year-old returned to City on loan and has built enough minutes to be in contention to feature on Saturday.
Defender Harrison Delbridge is still getting up to speed after a lengthy break since finishing up playing in South Korea.
"Daniel hasn't had that big a break as Delly has, so he's looking much, much better as these last two weeks have gone by," said City coach Aurelio Vidmar.
"If anyone's going to have game time that we feel a little bit more confident in, it's probably him at this stage."
Impressive young gun Marcus Younis could start after twice scoring off the bench, with Arzani likely to feature off the bench before forcing his way into the starting line-up.
"When you have a player of Daniel's quality, then you know you're going to have to find room somewhere. And unfortunately that's how it is," Vidmar said of his selection squeeze in attack.
"As I said, he's still going to need a couple of games where he's going to build up his minutes. I think this is the right time now to start.
"And that (starting) will be within a couple of weeks, I would say, if he keeps going the way he's gone."
After Saturday night's clash at CommBank Stadium, City will head straight to South Korea for their Asian Champions League Elite clash with Ulsan HD on Wednesday night.
When the team returns to Melbourne, veteran Mathew Leckie is expected to resume training with City's main group, after hip surgery the club hopes will end two years of injury hell.
City regain Nathaniel Atkinson from suspension but Japanese attacker Takeshi Kanamori will miss close to two months with a MCL injury
The Wanderers, meanwhile, are close to sealing a loan for Portsmouth defender and former Central Coast left-back Jacob Farrell.
Coach Gary van Egmond indicated Farrell just needed to pass his medical to be available for this weekend.
"Obviously Jacob wants to play games and he's highly motivated to be back here and put his best foot forward in regards to playing for Wanderers and giving himself the best opportunity to get in that World Cup spot as well," he said.
