It is the fourth cancellation in the Sky Blues’ 2012/13 campaign build-up and effectively puts paid to star signing Alessandro Del Piero getting a competitive run prior to the season’s start.

The Mariners pulled the plug today with head coach Graham Arnold blaming a tough match against Brisbane on Sunday for the decision.

Under the rules of the competition Sydney FC are prevented from organising another A-League match-up the weekend before the season’s start.

A club spokesman said there was no time to squeeze in another friendly earlier in the week but that head coach, Ian Crook, was “not worried” by the setback, with the club continuing with intra-club training.

In a statement about the cancellation Arnold said: “I am very apologetic and the players are very disappointed that we have to cancel this game.

“I spoke at length to Ian Crook who totally understands our situation as Sydney have had to call off games due to the same situation this pre-season.

“Originally the game was booked for Thursday but had to be moved to Wednesday due to the (Alessandro) Del Piero factor.

“We played in Maroochydore on Sunday against Brisbane in very warm conditions and that has sapped the energy of our players. We also copped a few slight injuries and after travelling back yesterday we had a light training session this morning.

“The players have not recovered sufficiently for me to put them in a high-risk situation by playing again tomorrow.

“It was my decision to cancel the game as I don’t want to jeopardise the welfare of any of our players.

“After the Brisbane game and performance I am very happy with where we are at tactically and mentally, and we’re ready to go for round one against Western Sydney. That is our focus.

“We’re disappointed that we can’t play Sydney who we deem as one of the favourites for this year's Hyundai A-League. It would have been a good test for us to see where we are at.”

Sydney FC captain Terry McFlynn still hadn’t heard of the cancellation when rung by au.fourfourtwo.com this afternoon but didn’t feel the team had endured a disrupted pre-season.

“Disruptive is probably the wrong word – there’s been rescheduling and rejigging, and when games have been cancelled we’ve had enough bodies to play intra-club games,” McFlynn said.

“Obviously it would be ideal to try and test ourselves out against other A-League opposition but fitness wise we’re on schedule, if not ahead of where we were last year, so it’s not a concern from that point of view.

“Now that we’ve got everyone back fully fit and healthy a game tomorrow against the Mariners would have been ideal but if it’s not to be then we’ll just get down to business and keep training as we always do.”

“It’s not a concern for the players – at the end of the day we’re focused on what we have to do – we do it day in day out and to put it into practice in a game just to confirm what we’re doing on a daily basis.

What with injuries and new arrivals, the Sky Blues have not had a chance to get their first 11 on the park prior to the season start – tomorrow’s game would have provided an ideal opportunity to do just that, McFlynn said.

“But if that’s not the case we’ll just keep training as we have been.”

Sydney FC had a previous match against Newcastle cancelled and matches against Manly United and Apia Leichhardt were scrapped when injuries and national duties with the U20s meant the club had insufficient players to put on the park.