Jedinak in doubt for Mariners

Central Coast will take an extended squad to Melbourne for Friday night's crunch Hyundai A-League showdown against the in-form Victory at the Telstra Dome.

The Mariners stormed into second spot with an impressive 3-0 victory over Adelaide on Saturday and head to Melbourne full of confidence.

But the preparation will be far from ideal for the Central Coast club with star player Mile Jedinak unable to train with the team throughout the week.

Jedinak has been rushed into Pim Verbeek's Socceroos squad for Thursday's World Cup qualifier in Bahrain.

Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna is hopeful a fit Jedinak will join the team in Melbourne late on Thursday and be fine to start to the top of the table clash.

"The plan is for him to play but we won't know for sure until pretty late," McKinna said.

"Either way, we're going down there knowing what to expect."

"We love playing down there. We've had some great games down there, it's going to be huge."

After battling injury for the first three months of the season, the Mariners are now starting to get key players back and are finding their best form.

McKinna is again likely to start with three men up front. His attacking game plan has worked wonders in recent weeks.

Matt Simon is leading the Hyundai A-League goalscoring charts with eight strikes, while Sasho Petrovski and Dylan Macallister also deserve their place in the side.

McKinna will not finalise his starting side until later in the week with defenders Andrew Clark and Paul O'Grady both desperate to play after missing last week's victory.

Clark has not played for more then a month after dislocating a shoulder against Wellington in Gosford, while O'Grady was not risked last week after picking up a minor groin injury.