Ailing Jets battling illness ahead of final A-League hit-out with arch rivals Central Coast

More than half of the squad which thumped Macarthur 3-0 in Campbelltown on Sunday had been struck with sickness.

By Wednesday night's final home game of the season, in which Newcastle came from behind to draw 1-1 with Western United, most players had been affected.

It prompted several changes to the starting XI and match-day 18 and Papas said post-match on Wednesday that Jets staff would spend the following two days assessing players before a quick turnaround to face arch rivals Central Coast away on Saturday.

"It was an outstanding effort to be honest," Papas said on Wednesday night.

"We had eight players out and probably 10 on the field who literally have been stuck in bed all day and, to see that kind of performance with one day less turnaround compared to them as well and how strong we finished that game, I couldn't be more proud of that group of players today.

"We made a call on the line-up at four o'clock. That's how late we had to leave it. I said to the staff, 'We've probably used more Vicks VapoRub than Dencorub today to prepare for this game', and that probably sums up the character of this group to put on a performance like that and we probably should've won that game in the end based on the second half."

The Jets started slowly on Wednesday night and went 1-0 down in the 27^th minute when Adisu Bayew struck with a close-range tap-in.

But the hosts came out firing in the second half and centre-back Jordan Elsey produced an equaliser in the 52^nd minute with a back-post header off a perfectly delivered Samuel Silvera corner kick.

Newcastle hit the posts twice after that and looked the more likely to steal a win.

The Jets moved to 29 points but stayed ninth. They could mathematically finish as high as seventh if they beat the fifth-placed Mariners and other results play in their favour.

Sydney, who have played one less game than Newcastle, are eighth with 31 points and Macarthur, who also have one game left in the regular season, are seventh on 32 points. Newcastle have a better goal difference than both sides.

"The focus is to still be as competitive as you can in every game and not look at it from a table point of view and look at it from a match point of view that every day when you show up you want to give your best, and you want to put on a performance and you want to put on a result," Papas said.

"So that's the message regardless for the last couple of games and as you've seen the boys haven't thrown the towel in, that's for sure. They've been outstanding."

But who Papas will have at his disposal on Saturday is not yet known. That includes star midfielder Daniel Penha, who has served a two-game suspension and has also been linked to Sydney FC for next season.

"I'm not really sure at the moment," Papas said when asked if Penha would start against the Mariners.

"He's also been quite ill throughout the week. So, even though he was suspended, he probably wouldn't have fronted up for any of those games anyway amongst a group of guys who are all battling the same thing. We'll just see how everyone pulls up.

"We're hopefully at the back end of it. Symptom-wise everyone is a bit fluey and just not feeling great and energy very low, so just trying to get bodies on the park at the moment."

Meanwhile, five Jets players - Penha, Olivier Boumal, Beka Mikeltadze, Angus Thurgate and Jason Hoffman - have been included in the fans voting shortlist for the A-League All Stars squad to take on Barcelona on May 25 in Sydney.

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