Giancarlo Italiano has applauded Wellington Phoenix's resilience in bouncing back from a last-minute injury to captain Alex Rufer and sealing victory against Macarthur in the A-League Men.
Rufer suffered bruising in the days leading up to Sunday's 2-1 win at Campbelltown Stadium and had approached coaching staff about playing only 45 minutes of the game.
But when the Swiss-born defender aggravated his injury warming up, Italiano ruled him out altogether and brought Fin Conchie into the starting side.
"(Rufer) is a massive player for us. We couldn't risk him," said Italiano.
Rufer's last-minute scratching came after midfielders Bozhidar Kraev and Nicholas Pennington, and defender Tim Payne joined Sam Sutton in the Phoenix casualty ward ahead of the road trip.
"We've had so many different things thrown at us this week," Italiano said.
"The fact that we lost Rufer five minutes before the game, I was just so buoyed by the fact that it was like, 'OK, no problem'. The boys took it in their stride."
Italiano believed that resilience was emblematic of a deeper attitude at the first-placed Phoenix, who are on track for their best season in club history.
"The team ethos is that we're a team first. We're bigger than all the individuals," he said.
"I don't mean that to be dramatic but it's what's got us through from day one.
"The fact that so many people wrote us off, I was able to refocus the whole group at the beginning of the year and say, 'Look these are our goals, this is what we want, we want some pride in the shirt'.
"They've just taken to it."
Club medical staff will assess Rufer on Monday to determine whether he could line up against in-form Perth Glory on Saturday night.
Bulgarian import Kraev and Payne are chances for selection but Pennington is at longer odds to recover in time.
