It has been a rough opening to pre-season for Maccabi Haifa, and Sunday brought a mixed bag of injury news as the club tries to regroup before the league campaign begins in earnest.
Andrija Novakovich, the American-Serbian forward the club signed to boost its attack, has still not kicked a ball for his new team. According to ONE, the striker has been laid low by a virus for nearly a week and missed Saturday's 3-0 Toto Cup defeat to Ironi Kiryat Shmona, leaving him without any chance to make a first impression during his onboarding period.
That loss in Kiryat Shmona followed a 3-2 derby defeat to Hapoel Haifa in the opening round, and the pair of results have all but ended Maccabi's hopes of advancing from the Toto Cup group phase before the league even kicks off.
There was a fresh injury blow too. Midfielder Ali Mohamed, the Nigerien international who had only just recovered from a quadriceps problem, returned to the side against Kiryat Shmona but came away with a new issue — foot inflammation that has put him back into treatment, ONE reports, with the club hoping he can return to training within days.
The one piece of good news concerned Kenny Saief. The veteran Israeli winger, who has been out since the end of last season, is back in full training and is regarded internally as a potentially significant boost once he is ready to be reintegrated into the squad.
Maccabi's injury list does not end there. Goalkeeper Omri Glazer is also sidelined, with a knee ligament strain that is expected to keep him out for around two weeks, while Wanderson — known to fans as "Tsunami" — remains unavailable after being concussed.
With the results going the wrong way, head coach Barak Bachar used a team meeting to announce a tactical rethink. "The formation we played until now did not work, and from now on we will return to play our regular formation: 4-3-3," he told his players, according to ONE.
Maccabi Haifa are next in action on Tuesday against Tiberias, a game Bachar will hope produces both a first win of the summer and a clearer picture of who he actually has available to pick from.
