Both Gielnik and Raso did not play in the Algarve Cup earlier this month with Gielnik not making the trip to Portugal while Raso returned to Australia to begin her rehab for her knee injury.

Gielnik's injury started to flare up at the end of the W-League season but during training in the lead up to Algarve she started to feel pain in her ankle once again.

It wasn’t until after an internal match that she knew something was wrong and she went for scans.

It was only six hours before the team were set to travel to Portugal but scans revealed she had bone stress.

“It is kind of the stage before a stress fracture so it was four to six weeks instead of six months so I’m pretty lucky,” she said.

 

Gains ✔️ #rehablife

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It’s been a slow progression as she came out of her moon boot last week but she is set to get back out on the field Thursday if all goes to plan.

Raso has been tracking well with her injury, which she sustained near the end of the W-League season and on Monday night she warmed up against Thailand.

“I’m looking to hopefully get some minutes in the next internal game then from there be ready for Asian Cup,” Raso said.

 

Just trying to be as big as my friends 💪🏼

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Injured Melbourne City teammates, Steph Catley and Kyah Simon have also been travelling well.

“Catley is looking very good at the moment, so she could have almost played but didn’t want to take the risk,” Matildas coach Alen Stajcic said.

“They are all at different stages in their rehab but they aren’t ready to play yet so still a little bit of work for them to do,” he said.

The Matildas have an internal match before they head off to Jordan at the end of the month, which could give the four injured players some game time before heading into the Asian Cup.

“We have another internal game before we leave for Jordan and hopefully they will all get game time and obviously it is important to get game time before heading into an international tournament to give themselves the opportunity in our starting XI,” Stajcic said.