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MELBOURNE Heart officials last night feared for the career of young winger Adrian Zahra after he was badly injured in a terrible tackle by Melbourne Victory captain Kevin Muscat.

It is believed Zahra suffered major knee damage when Muscat flew into a 79th-minute challenge that ended with the Heart player carried to the change rooms and the Victory veteran sent-off and facing a potentially lengthy suspension by the match review panel.

Sent-off for the second time in two games, Muscat will no doubt be shattered by the turn of events in the A-League derby, which ended in a dramatic 2-2 draw in front of 32,231 fans at Etihad Stadium, but Heart coach John van't Schip was clearly overwhelmed and more than disappointed.

When he should have been enjoying a special night and memorable comeback by his team from 2-0 down, van't Schip was near-distraught after seeing Zahra's pain when he entered the changerooms after the game.

"It's not looking good,'' van't Schip said. "The tackle was terrible and hopefully he will recover and return to the pitch but it's not looking good. The doctors and medical people are taking a good look at it and it's not looking good.

"It happened and what can you do? It doesn't fit on the football field, a tackle like that, but it did and hopefully it's not going to end the young career of a great player.

"It's really heartbreaking seeing a young player with tears and a lot of pain and then you forget very fast about the game and things we achieved this evening.

"It shouldn't be like that. We should be talking about a great game, but the mian thing in my head at least is feeling very sorry for Adrian Zahra.
"He came in this season and did fantastic for us coming from the VPL. You'd prefer to talk about the game and goals rather than the tackle that could cost a young player his career.''

The tackle could yet cost Muscat a hefty suspension given the A-League's match review panel will look at the incident and has the power to add games onto the mandatory two-match ban for a straight red card, menaing the Victory skipper may be out until the finals.

That would be a blow for Muscat and Victory, which is sitting fifth on the table and needing results to make sure of finals football, but coach Ernie Merrick would not buy into the red card and his captain's actions with two red cards from his past two games.

"I didn't see the tackle and the send-off,'' Merrick said. "Kevin's Kevin. He does a good job for us. He's been sent-off, but I haven't seen the tackle.

"I don't want to go into the details of referees. If I start talking about referees we'll be here for a long night.

"The referee sent him off, we accept that and they'll make a judgment on it. If you ook at the last two or three years he's hardly been sent-off so look into it any way you want.''

Posted By: SCC 28, Jan 22, 18:43:18