It has been a nervous couple of weeks for Ryan Campbell, but the Newcastle Jets coach was relieved to have his leading striker back in the country and unscathed as they prepared for an important fixture in their finals ambitions.
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A Sarina Bolden hat-trick against Brisbane in Maitland two weeks ago ensured the Jets held sixth position heading into an international break and with five A-League rounds remaining.
The Philippines international flew to Spain after the match for the Pinatar Cup, a four nations tournament with Finland, Scotland and Slovenia, but returned to Australia on Thursday night.
Campbell expected the in-form 27-year-old, who has scored 11 goals in 12 appearances to be second by a goal to Canberra's Michelle Heyman in the A-League golden boot race, would start against Perth at Maitland Sportsground on Sunday.
Newcastle and Perth, who beat the Jets 1-0 in round two but have not won since defeating Central Coast 2-1 in round 10, both have 23 points but the latter is in eighth position.
"Sarina has obviously played a fair bit but I spoke to her [between flights] and she felt pretty good," Campbell said.
"The flight is the hard part of it. She was just tired. She didn't really sleep after the last game because she had to get straight to the airport.
"But she looks after herself really well. She does all the right things to make sure she's right. So I don't have any worries about her doing her best to make sure she's fit. It's just whether or not the flight takes too much out of her or not. She'll get two, nearly three days of recovery before we play."
Defender Claudia Cicco and forward Lara Gooch are in Uzbekistan with the Young Matildas for the AFC Under-20 Women's Asian Cup and back-up goalkeeper Kiara Rochaix is sidelined after having finger surgery.
Melina Ayres also looks unlikely to play with Campbell saying tests revealed the experienced striker had had glandular fever and was still recovering.
The 24-year-old initially missed games due to concussion symptoms but was sent for tests when they proved ongoing.
"She may not have even had concussion, she may have been right in the middle of glandular fever and the symptoms of that are similar in regards to tiredness," Campbell said.
"She's feeling a bit better now but still comes in and says she feels exhausted, so we're not pushing."
The Jets adjusted their formation, switching from a back three to a back four, and style of play against Brisbane.
They created less scoring opportunities than in previous outings but were clinical with their chances and defensively sounder, finishing the game with just their second clean sheet this campaign.
"We weren't overly happy with how we had to play against Brisbane in order to get the result because I want to be a team who dominates with the ball and has a lot more possession and chances than the opposition," Campbell said.
"We gave that up a little bit against Brisbane because they're so good with the ball. But Perth aren't the same team. We'll be more dominant in regards to possession and field position while still keeping elements of what we were really good at."
On Saturday, Western Sydney (23) host Sydney (27) and Brisbane (17) play Melbourne City (31 points). On Sunday, Melbourne Victory (26) are at home to Wellington (19) and Central Coast (27) play Adelaide (15).
Western United (32) were playing Canberra (14) on Friday night.
