Ifill Set For Phoenix Comeback

Ifill suffered a small tear to the medial ligament of his right knee and damage to his right ankle in a training game earlier this month.

The 32-year-old Brit and midfielder Vince Lia, who is returning from a knee injury, both came through training on Friday and will each play a half in the final pre-season match against New Zealand national league side Youngheart Manawatu in Palmerston North.

"Paul is good," Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert said. "You can normally tell with him. He's got some good banter around this morning. He's feeling good.

"I think he'll be okay. He looks fine. It's just really he hasn't had the matches now. He did a little bit in India but he's missed quite a bit of work."

Saturday's game will be Lia's first after he missed the club's tour to India because of his injury, which was initially predicted to keep him out for a couple of weeks.

Instead it has been months and even if he comes through his 45 minutes unscathed, Herbert felt it was unlikely his midfielder would be pushing for a starting spot next week.

"I'd say Vinnie will take two or three games to get back," the Phoenix coach said.

Ifill's chances are slightly better but his recovery will not be rushed after he came back too early from a groin injury last season, hurt himself again and ended up missing around 10 games in total.

"The thing that was different last time is that it was a muscle injury and it's a little bit dangerous to come back too early," Ifill said.

"I did the rehab and it felt fine. But you can't replicate the speed of an A-League game in training. We mis-read the script a bit there.

"This is a different injury and I've done this before. Once the ligament has healed it's fine.

"The ankle is still sore but I've been running around (at training). It's manageable. Tomorrow will be some sort of test."