Injury-ravaged Adelaide United will be searching for their first win in five A-League Men outings when they host Macarthur FC on Friday night.
It's been a brutal run for the Reds not made any easier by the absence of Mohamed Toure, who could miss the rest of the season after dislocating his shoulder after tangling with Melbourne Victory defenders last time out.
United coach Carl Veart said Toure remained "in a lot of pain" and was a "good chance" to require surgery following an impending specialist appointment.
Midfielder Louis D'Arrigo will also miss the Macarthur clash after getting COVID, joining Bernardo, George Blackwood and Ryan Kitto who missed their last match with the illness.
The absences couldn't come at a worse time with fifth-ranked United clinging to a finals berth by just one point with five games remaining.
"We're going through a bit of a dip at the moment but we'll work through it," Veart told reporters Thursday.
"You saw last week how much effort they put into the game and they were very disappointed ... we'll bounce back this week.
"It's been a difficult season to work out where you are ... we're not going to know until virtually everyone's played the same amount of games.
"We've got five games and four of them are at home ... do the job at home and we'll play finals football."
Reinforcements could be on the way as defenders Lachie Barr and Alex Popovic will undergo fitness tests, while forward Kusini Yengi is as little as a week away having been sidelined since December with a quad injury.
"(Yengi) was our number one striker, to be missing him all season has been difficult," Veart said.
"He brings that aggression as a target man and he has a lot of speed as well ... if Mo (Toure) misses the rest of the season, that's something we're going to need."
Macarthur enters fresh from ending a three-game winless run of their own with a 4-2 win against Perth on Sunday, also sitting in finals contention by a solitary point.
The match will be forward Al Hassan Toure's first trip back to Adelaide since departing United for the Bulls in the off-season.
He scored against the Reds in the sides' earlier meeting this season in western Sydney.
