Vargas is believed to have a small tear at the top of calf muscle which is causing him knee soreness and Victory will give him until just before the game to decide if he wants to take his place.

"Rody Vargas is a decision we are going to make the day of the game and we will have a player on standby," said coach Ernie Merrick today.

"He's actually feeling quite good Rody, and he's one of the few players who can play with injuries and after 27 rounds, you'd expect a few of them to have those.

"Bearing in mind that last season he played every minute of every game last season as did Kevin Muscat. He's 60-40, I've pencilled him in and I don't have a rubber. If he brings a rubber, that's up to him."

Merrick seemed unconcerned by the spate of injuries which have befallen his club in recent weeks, with regular starters Archie Thompson, Robbie Kruse and Matthew Kemp all out of Thursday's match.

He would rather focus on the players coming back into the squad, including skipper Muscat and youngster Mate Dugandzic.

"We've got some good players coming back into the squad. Kevin Muscat will be back into the first XI, so will Surat Sukha," said Merrick. "We've got young Mate Dugandzic coming in. He's ready to go."

Melbourne have never lost a final and go into Thursday's match at Etihad Stadium as underdogs, having lost to Sydney in two of three matches this season and having not scored against the Sky Blues in 270 minutes.

But Merrick has backed his club's prolific scoring record this season and believes they have the necessary firepower to break down Sydney's defence, even without two of their top three scorers of the season.

"Our focus at training this week has been all about what we do in the front third," he said. "Given that we've got a slightly different line-up up there and we've got the ability to do that, our focus has been on attacking play in the front third.

"We have to play better and we have to score goals, especially in the first leg of a major semi-final, you've got to score goals.

"We've got tremendous attacking midfield players who like to get forward, Angulo, Ward, Pondeljak, Hernandez. It's easy to take a couple of game in isolation.

"Don't forget we've scored 47 goals this year. That's a record. There's been a range of players who have scored those goals."