NEWCASTLE Jets coach Rob Stanton is poised to sign an attacker with A-League experience whom he hopes will make up for a season-ending knee injury to teenage winger Oscar Fryer.
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Fryer ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee at training on Tuesday and requires reconstructive surgery.
Stanton had high hopes for the former Sydney FC teenager, who now joins Jacob Dowse on the long-injury list.
"Oscar is a big loss," Stanton said. "He got clipped at training and fell awkwardly. He trained the whole session. We thought it was minor but it swelled up once he had cooled down. He had an MRI and it showed a torn ACL. We were shocked by it. "
Stanton still intends to have a 20-man playing roster plus keepers and is close to finalising a deal with an attacker.
"I am looking to add three more players and should have one done in the next couple of days," Stanton said. "He is an attacker and I wanted to get him regardless. I think he will suit us and bring some leadership. I might bring him to Darwin for the Australia Cup if I can. We still need to find a foreigner and another pocket player to give us a bit extra."
As well as Fryer, the Jets were without Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Aleks Susnjar, Eli Adams, Lachy Bayliss and Ben van Dorssen in a 4-0 loss to Sydney FC on Thursday.
Sydney led 1-0 at the break and took control in the second half, which included two penalties.
"It was just a hit out," Stanton said. "The scoreline didn't matter."
There were some good things in it as well."
I wanted to test them under extreme pressure and see how we fared. I don't care if we lose every game in preseason. My objective is to start the season better than we did last year."
Stamatelopoulos and Susnjar are likely to be in the squad that travels to Darwin on Monday ahead of the Australia Cup qualifier against Western United on Wednesday night.
