To see the fans at the MCG tonight..

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The Blackburn midfielder crunched Bertos in the first half of the 2-1 Aussie win with a tackle some suggested should have resulted in a red card.

Grella appeared to rake over Berto's ankle with a two-footed challenge on the byline that left the Phoenix winger writhing in agony.

And Bertos was later hit by another heavy challenge after Tim Cahill flew in and mis-timed his tackle on the skilful winger, propelling him high into the air and again needing attention.

After the friendly in Melbourne, Bertos wasn't about to bag the Australians - but admitted it was a tough night on the same shin that was hit by the two heavy tackles.

"I'm feeling better than what I thought. I think my shin pads saved me," he said. "I could walk straight away and the doctors gave me the all-clear."

Bertos will wait for the swelling to go down before hopefully getting the go-ahead to continue preparations for World Cup in Austria.

"I couldn't really tell what happened with both of them, to be honest," he said. "I was just going for the ball and felt some contact on my leg.

"I haven't seen any replays but the boys have been saying it was a strong challenge but thankfully I'm not too bad and I'll be able to  carry on to the World Cup."

Asked whether he was just being diplomatic and the Wellington Phoenix star replied.  "I don't know what to say, man. I think they were just spur of the moment things.

"I'm just thankful I'm alright but going into the next few games, I'll be wary about that stuff for sure."

And he was able to joke about the two incidents: "I didn't rate shin pads at the start of my football career." 

Later Tim Cahill also spoke about his challenge on Bertos after the game.

"I thought Bertos was going to dink the ball and as he's dinked it, I've put my leg up but you can see I haven't gone with force, I've just gone pretty much to catch the ball," he said.

"But the main thing is he isn't injured and their manager is okay/ I was gutted for the challenge and I'm not someone to go in and hurt someone.

"So people can make what they want but people can see there, there was no intent to hurt him. The main thing is their manager's fine and the lad's fine." 

To see the fans at the MCG tonight..

.