United travel to Wellington for the Round 15 clash with the youngest ever squad assembled by the club.

Burns and Sarkies return to the squad after missing the last two matches with their Olyroos duties successfully successfully taking them to Beijing 2008.

And Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar was delighted by the boost the pair will give his side.

“They’ve looked quite sharp yesterday and today so it will be an added bonus for us,” he said today.

“They had the weekend off and came back refreshed yesterday and touch wood there’s no distractions.

“There’s no more [Olyroos] games probably until February when they’d get selected for the Socceroos I’d imagine.

"But they can concentrate solely on Adelaide United for the next couple of months.”

Angelo Costanzo will not be risked against Phoenix after picking up a badly corked thigh while Cassio and Jason Spagnuolo will be missing for at least another week.

Robert Cornthwaite will also be out through suspension leaving Vidmar to shuffle his pack ahead of what he sees as a must win match.

“We’ll find out over the next couple of days our formation,” said Vidmar.

“There’s a good possibility Tomi (Milardovic) and Issy Erdogan playing at the back so we’ll just have to look at that in our structure when we get there.”

United will be leaving for a marathon journey across the Tasman early Wednesday morning before arriving around 7pm in New Zealand.

The squad of fifteen will then train on Thursday with a light run out before kick off Friday evening.