Soccer: Injuries list snookers Herbert

All Whites coach Ricki Herbert (centre). Photo / Mark Mitchell

All Whites coach Ricki Herbert has few options for his starting line-up against the Socceroos tomorrow.

But he's not letting injury and other problems blight his determination to put out a competitive team.

Eight of the players who were on the bench at the All Whites' last game - the 0-0 with Paraguay - at the World Cup will take the field.

Gone, from the 11 who ran out to play in Polokwane, are Mark Paston, Tony Lochhead, Winston Reid, Ryan Nelsen, Simon Elliott, Leo Bertos, Rory Fallon and Tommy Smith (all injured), and Ivan Vicelich who returned to Auckland after Thursday's 3-0 loss to Mexico to attend his sister's wedding.

From that starting XI, only strikers Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen are expected to face the Socceroos.

They'll be joined by a number of bench-warmers, with Glen Moss, Ben Sigmund, David Mulligan, Tim Brown, Michael McGlinchey, Andy Boyens, Chris Wood and Jeremy Brockie in consideration.

Brockie (for Killen) and Wood (for Fallon) played off the bench as second-half substitutes against the Paraguayans.

Kosta Barbarouses, who had a reasonable game against Mexico, and Marco Rojas, who missed that one through illness but flies to Adelaide today, will be in the frame. Herbert has little choice.

With defenders Michael Fitzgerald and Michael Boxall fully tested in unaccustomed wing-back roles in Denver, Herbert might prefer to try something different on defence, even to the extent of returning to a 4-4-2 formation.

But without genuine cover at left-back in Lochhead's absence, he'll have to consider carefully in putting out his team against an Australian side who can expect plenty from a New Zealand side left scarred by incidents in their last clash a little over a year ago.

Bertos was brutally scythed down by Vince Grella and Tim Cahill and was stretchered off while the two Australians escaped with yellow cards. Brown too copped it and left for hospital at halftime with a shoulder injury serious enough to dash his World Cup dreams.

Herbert, due in South Australia around noon today, has little time to regroup but refuses to let injuries get in the way of the bigger picture.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted this but we will deal with it," said Herbert before leaving Denver.

"The young guys are all going to have to play and in some ways that's good.

"The cards are straight in front of me. I don't have many options right now.

"We're really struggling from a defensive point of view.

"Hopefully that transtasman rivalry will give us a boost."

Australian coach Holger Osieck, who puts his team out against Serbia in a second friendly in Melbourne on Tuesday, has named a strong squad as he prepares for the 2014 World Cup campaign which starts later in the year.

Only three A-League players, including Melbourne Victory strikers Robbie Kruse and Archie Thompson, have been named while goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak - who ended Moss' career at the Victory - is the only uncapped player in the 23-man squad.

The Socceroos will start deserved short-price favourites.

But, determined to erase some bitter memories, they will get a decent scrap from a fired-up All Whites.

maddaford@xtra.co.nz