Forced to miss Canberra’s midweek make up match against Perth Glory, Emma Ilijoski was overjoyed to get back out on the pitch on Saturday.
“I definitely felt like I was missing out, but I had full trust in the team. It was very different watching from the screen but I still enjoyed it,” Emma said.
Waiting for the results from a PCR test, Ilijoski admitted while it was sad to miss the game, the safety of the team and the league has to come first.
Fortunately, the 19 year old returned a negative result and was able to re-join the team in time for their match against Adelaide, the hosts going down 3-1 at Viking Park.
“It was the best feeling to be back on the field on Saturday.”
“It hasn’t been the most ideal start to the season for us, but we’re building every week and each game we’ve improved a lot, especially against Adelaide we were really happy with our performance despite the score line,” she told media on Tuesday.
Both sides will be without some stars for the match though, with Canberra’s Karly Roestbakken and Sydney FC’s Cortnee Vine and Remy Siemsen in Dubai for the CommBank Matildas pre-tournament training camp.
However Ilijoski knows that both sides will lift in the absence of their team mates.
“It was incredible having Karly here. She’s such a good role model for us and definitely lifted the energy within the team,”
“We want to keep up that energy that she brought, and yes it’s definitely a loss but we’re all cheering for her in the Matildas and we’re so happy for her.”
“We have really great periods of the game and some awesome football that we’re playing and it’s about executing the chances we get but also not having those lapses defensively.
“We’re going to get there no doubt, it’s going to take just one win to get us back on track and there’s no other game to do it than against Sydney FC”.
