Italian star Robert Armellini will be on the sidelines until February after suffering a knee injury recently.
Armellini, regarded as one of the best players in Series Futsal Victoria, is a huge out for the aspiring Balwyn club, currently sitting third on the ladder.
The 26-year-old will have surgery to correct the injury this Monday and hopes to return to the Thomastown Futsal Oz Stadium before the end of this season.
“I broke my meniscus playing and I’ll have surgery this coming Monday,” Armellini told SeriesFutsal.com.
“I’ll be out for six weeks, hopefully after that the surgeon said I’ll be able to play normally.
“I’ll probably give it eight weeks to be at 100 percent, so I hope to return around mid-February.”
In its penalty shoot-out loss to Fitzroy last week, Balwyn played with just eight players after some other injuries and outs.
Armellini says that the team is currently on a recruiting drive to bolster its squad in the short-term.
“We always had a lot of players and now it looks like we don’t have enough for some games,” he said.
“We are in contact with a few players to see if we can get someone, especially for these unlucky periods where we have a few players out.
“But we still focus mainly on the players we have in order to keep our third position. We have a big game on Friday night (against Pascoe Vale), I know the boys will give everything they have to win it.”
The Balwyn/Pascoe Vale game is the last game this Friday evening, kicking off at 9:55pm AEDT.
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