City are one of just two sides that will be down a player in week one of the A-League season after losing striker Maclaren to Graham Arnold’s Socceroos for Thursday evening’s 5-0 drubbing of Nepal and next Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying fixture against Chinese Taipei in Kaohsiung.

While Maclaren demonstrated  his absence was seemingly required – starting and scoring a hattrick last night – it leaves Mombaerts without his undisputed number nine for Saturday night’s season-opening Melbourne Derby.

Should City’s gaffer desire it, Young Socceroos striker Moudi Najjar presents the most obvious like-for-like swap within his remaining squad, although Uruguayan imports Javier Cabrera and Adrian Luna, Florin Berenguer, the in-form Craig Noone, Olyroos Lachlan Wales or even youth prospects Raphael Borges Rodrigues or Stefan Colakovski are other options at the tip of City’s spear.

Mombaerts said he was disappointed to be without his number one striker, but that he and his side would adapt.

“I’m very excited to start after a long pre-season and it’s interesting to start with a derby,” he said.

“I’m very disappointed about this [Maclaren] situation but it’s not under my control so we have to do without Jamie. I congratulate him for his hattrick yesterday but, yes, I’d prefer to have Jamie with us.

“It’s difficult to replace Jamie but we have some solution with young guys. We can substitute Jamie with Lachlan Wales or Moudi Najjar or Ramy Najjarine. Another solution could be that we play with a false nine with Adrian Luna.

“I don’t think we have to change our system. Maybe we have to adjust, we have to adapt to the different qualities of players but no, we have trained and we have had a long pre-season to have a very good start.

“We cannot change our system, we need to be confident with this.”