Hot on the heels of finding the back of the net four times for the Socceroos in World Cup qualifiers against Nepal and Chinese Taipei, Maclaren touched back down in Melbourne on Thursday and resumed light training duties with his teammates soon thereafter.

Having scored six times in City’s run to the final of the FFA Cup, the 26-year-old was handed starting responsibilities for the Socceroos game against the Nepalese and rewarded Head Coach Graham Arnold’s faith in him with a maiden Socceroos hattrick.

He then followed that up with an 84th minute garnish in the Socceroos 7-1 in an eleven-minute cameo in the win over Chinese Taipei.

In his absence, City struggled in the final third against Melbourne Victory in the season-opening Melbourne Derby; a makeshift front three of English import Craig Noone, Lachlan Wales and Uruguayan signing Javier Cabrera unable to find pay dirt against their cross-town foes.

“Yes, he trained normally today so he is fit," Mombaerts said when quizzed on the status of his number nine.  

“He’s a little bit tired because he played the game and the trip was long, but he’s ok.

“He is a striker and it’s very important that strikers score goals. I want to congratulate him, especially for scoring a hattrick – that was a very good performance.

“We know that Jamie can score. In our style, it’s also very important to have this kind of player in our team.”

Sunday evening’s meeting with the Reds represents the first of two fixtures the clubs are set to play in less than a week; the pair set to meet in the final of the FFA Cup on Wednesday at Coopers Stadium.

With the return of Maclaren and back-to-back fixtures against the same opposition on the agenda, Mombaerts is faced with the tricky prospect of reshuffling his line-up to meet the rather unique circumstances. 

Whilst revealing that his squad would be without Frenchman Florin Berenguer for at least a month and that there would likely be some reshuffling at the back – Richard Windbichler likely to come in for Curtis Good in at some point – Mombaerts was recalcitrant to reveal how his squad would look in attack for the coming games.  

“We want firstly to play well, but we want to win,” Mombaerts said.

“We have to think about these two games very closely. It’s not easy to play the same team [twice] in three days.

“But also, we can organise some rotations – but not too many. Many three or four maximum to be ready to fight the first game and also to be ready for the FFA Cup final.

“We have to find solutions within our squad.

“We know that Lachlan [Wales] can play some different positions. He can play as an attacking midfielder [as well as a winger] and Ramy [Najjarine] can challenge on the right side.

“The first lesson was we need to be more confident to play our style. I’m sure we can do better with possession if we respect our game principles with positioning – positioning is so important for us.

“Also, we need to take time to prepare our action. When we are in the possessional phase we can do better then we have done. I’m sure we can do better.

“Especially on the right side, on the right side, we can combine better – so that’s what we have focused on this week.

“[We need] more confidence when we have the ball – when we are in possession – and I’m sure we can improve this.”