Head coach Ufuk Talay returns to the Wellington dugout as they face league leaders Melbourne City in the A-League Men on Saturday.
Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay will return from isolation on Saturday, aiming to strengthen his side's A-League Men finals push with a win over Melbourne City.
Talay missed the Phoenix's last two games which led to them shooting up the ladder into fourth spot.
The Phoenix claimed wins over Perth and Brisbane with assistant coach Giancarlo Italiano taking charge of the side in Talay's absence.
"It feels like a long seven days," Talay said. "I was quite crook with a blocked nose.
"Watching the game was difficult especially with the delay in the stream and it felt pretty weird to be sat at home watching.
"But it's very pleasing to have got six points from two games."
City sit top of the table and only second-placed Western United pose a realistic chance of hauling them back into the race to finish first.
Their coach Patrick Kisnorbo expects to have Jamie Maclaren back on deck after his wedding.
He is also confident Marco Tilio and Connor Metcalfe will be available in some capacity after their duties with the Socceroos for the game at Cronulla's Shark Park.
City have lost just three games this season but Talay believes his men have identified a way to halt their run.
"We'll try to nullify them when they have the ball and try to expose them because they do throw a lot of numbers forward," he said.
Wellington themselves may be forced to rush back Tim Payne after he returns from national team duties with New Zealand on Friday due to their mounting list of absences.
On top of fresh COVID-19 cases in the group they are already without Jaushua Sotirio, Gary Hooper, Clayton Lewis and Joshua Laws.
"We'll put him (Payne) in the squad because we are low on numbers at the moment," Talay said.
"We've got a couple more COVID-19 cases in the group. Gael (Sandoval) is a bit touch and go with a collision from the Brisbane game, I'm not 100 per cent sure.
"One of the injured boys got COVID-19 and another one who was part of the group that went to Brisbane has COVID-19 as well.
"We had 14 at training so Payney will be assessed once he's back and hopefully he'll be good enough to sit on the bench."
