The Dutch import has been sorely missed in the Sky Blues cobbled together backline and is a near-certainty for game time after putting in 45 minutes during a mid-week friendly.

Bosschaart described accusations the Sky Blues lacked heart in their resounding defeat to Central Coast as “stupid” and warned against reading too much into the loss.

“I don’t think we have to make a big issue of it,” he said. “Everyone in his career loses at least once to a big score.

“I lost once 8-0 at home. That was against Ajax when I played with Utrecht. It was terrible of course but at that time Ajax had some really good players.

“Every player is going to lose a game like this at least once in their career it’s just how you recover from that and play the next week that’s important. It’s all about this game now and if we get a win against the Victory everything else is forgotten.

“We actually said straight after the match, these things happen in a career so let’s forget about it as soon as possible, keep the mind clear and get ready for the next game.

“To be honest I don’t think anyone in the squad is still thinking about that loss now. I haven’t seen anybody in our team who has given up. All the players wear the shirt with pride.”

The 32-year-old has been seven months out of the game with a torn achilles tendon and is itching to get on the park. As expected Alessandro Del Piero will be rushed back into the side after missing last week, with Fabio also in line to get a run against his former club.

The Sky Blues go into the tonight’s match eighth on the ladder and the opportunity to redeem themselves in front of what should be a bumper home crowd.

 “It’s going to be a tough game but to be honest every game in the A-League is tough this year as you can see from the table,” Bosschaart said.

“Melbourne are very good but they play against us and we have something to prove, we need to win as well. We are fired up to get a win.”

Despite watching the start of the season unfold from the stands, the defender was clearly impressed with the quality of play in Season 8.

“With Del Piero and Shinji Ono and Emile Heskey in the league – it’s really good to have these boys here now,” he added.

“Not only for the publicity but also for the level of football – the standard is getting higher. Maybe this is going to be the beginning of Australian football and the A-League is going to be really big in the rest of the world.

“When I came here last year nobody knew the A-League, nobody knew what the level of football was, and to be honest I didn’t know it also. But now people know the A-League is up and coming.”