A-League Women: Perth Glory coach Stephen Peters says Georgia Cassidy still building fitness after injury

Perth Glory coach Stephen Peters has admitted the fitness of Georgia Cassidy is a juggling act after the young midfielder was once again restricted during her side’s 3-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers. The 20-year-old was removed at half-time during Glory’s fourth straight home win on Friday night, which entrenched them inside the A-League Women top six. The Young Matilda suffered a serious hamstring strain late in the NPLW WA season, which ruined her A-League Women pre-season and meant Glory have had to get her up to speed mid-season. She has played 395 minutes across six games and is yet to play a full 90 minutes this season, and Peters said the central midfielder’s conditioning was a work in progress after he withdrew her with his side leading 2-0. “It’s a loading issue now, where we probably loaded her too much, not by design or anything. She’s not exactly in the best condition with her hamstrings,” he said. “It’s a week-by-week thing with her, and then just some of the load shifted to the other leg. We needed to just manage her — she actually didn’t train all week.” But Peters declared himself satisfied with her performance and said her absence was felt in the 20 minutes after the restart when the Wanderers established more of a footing in the game, leading to them reducing the deficit to 2-1 before Ella Lincoln made the points safe late. “It’s very hard when you take Cassidy out of the team, she brings so many other players into the game. Losing her, we lost a bit of fluency,” he said. “We were a bit too rigid, and we rode our luck a little bit, they seemed to have their blinkers on there in the second half. “It was a strange one. The more I tried to send a message to them, the less they listened to it — it may be a little bit of fatigue, I’m not sure.” Tijan McKenna stepped into midfield from centre-back and swapped with Cassidy at various points in the first half and then moved there permanently in the second half to fill the void left by Cassidy. McKenna’s poise and retention of possession calmed Glory’s nerves late, and Peters said her impact came at a vital time. “Tijan and G (Cassidy) have got a very good relationship. They’ve known each other for a long time, so they’re comfortable interchanging between each other, so that’s a massive plus for us,” he said. “Wherever you put her, she’s just a beast, we’re super happy with her. She was my player of the match, probably equal with (goalkeeper) Teresa Morrissey because she does so many different jobs for us and does them well.”