Castro has been sidelined with a hamstring injury after going down in Glory’s 2-0 loss away to Central Coast late last month.

In Castro’s absence, Glory were battered by Melbourne Victory but eked out a 1-1 draw, before a shock 2-1 home loss to Newcastle Jets on Saturday.

The reigning Johnny Warren medalist was listed as being four weeks from fitness in last week’s official A-League ins and outs.

However, Castro moved well at Glory training on Tuesday and could return to the fray sooner than expected, although Saturday’s home clash with Sydney FC is likely too soon.

Griffiths was seething with Perth’s display against Newcastle, but refused to believe the side relied on their Spanish attacker.

“You can’t take Diego out of any team and expect them to be exactly the same,” Griffiths said.

“We’ve got to be a good enough unit and a good enough structure that we don’t rely on one or two players who are missing otherwise there’s no point having a good squad.”

Griffiths revealed that Glory had exchanged honest truths internally following their surprise defeat to the Jets.

He said Perth were at a crucial junction in their season, following one point from their past three games.

“We’re certainly still in the mix to be where we aim to be. There’s still 20 odd games left,” he said.

“It’s at that breaking point or turning point where we need to make a decision which way we’re going to go with the season.

"We don’t want to rollover, we’ve got too much strength and too much character in the dressing room to let that happen.”

He added: “It’s just having a strong look in the mirror of where we’re at. Looking at how serious do we want to take this season.

“You can’t just get by having good players on paper, that’s only going to get you so far.

“We turn up to some bigger games, we turn up to Melbourne Victory away, got a good result, turn up to Melbourne City away, got a good result.

“No disrespect to Newcastle Jets, but everybody expected us to win and it’s like we just didn’t turn up.”