Auckland City have been dealt a big blow ahead of the Fifa Club World Cup, with Ivan Vicelich forced to miss the tournament with a niggling injury.
The talismanic skipper inspired Auckland to third place at last year's event - being awarded the bronze ball as the Club World Cup'sthird-best player - but will have to be content with an assistant coach role next month in Japan.
Auckland coach Ramon Tribulietx had hoped Vicelich would have been able to overcome the injury but the veteran has lost a race against time ahead of the warm-up match against J League 2 side Yokohama FC.
"It's a shame Ivan is not in a position to be able to compete," Tribulietx said. "He's been nursing an injury but he hasn't overcome that in time.
"He understands that it's a massive step up and we've made the call that he will help in a different way," Tribulietx said.
Auckland's seventh appearance at Fifa's premier club tournament will feature an opening match against either Urawa Red Diamonds, Gamba Osaka or Sanfrecce Hiroshima on December 10. A win in that clash will see the Oceania champions advance through to the full tournament with a chance to emulate last year's famous run.
Despite the loss of Vicelich, the squad still includes five players with All Whites experience in Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, Clayton Lewis, Adam McGeorge, Ryan De Vries and Jacob Spoonley. And Tribulietx described himself as "very happy" with the state of the entire squad.
"We have quite a few new players in there," he said. "Some are very young but this generation of players have a very good understanding of the game and their skillset is very good. There are a core of players from last year who are back in and with one more year of experience."
The core is formed by Marko Dordevic, Mario Bilen, Darren White, Angel Berlanga, Takuya Iwata, Emiliano Tade and Dae Wook Kim, while striker Joao Moreira is fully fit after missing last year's campaign with a broken leg.
Tribulietx thought that, despite last year's fairytale run to the podium, the task before his side remained complex and difficult.
"Our performance last year helped change our perception of how we view games in this tournament," he said. "But we are the first to acknowledge we are coming up against a team from Japan who are 20 or 25 times bigger than us, so our feet remain firmly on the ground."
Auckland depart New Zealand next week, setting up camp in Yokohama ahead of the friendly with Yokohama FC on December 4.
