Vince Lia to miss Premier League friendlies

The reliable midfielder will play no part in the high-profile games against English opposition, although his Spanish colleague is set to return to action.

A ongoing hamstring problem means Wellington Phoenix midfielder Vince Lia won't play against English Premier League clubs West Ham and Newcastle United next week.

The 29-year-old Australian has been managing the injury throughout pre-season and coach Ernie Merrick confirmed he would not be fit enough for the matches in Auckland and Wellington which form part of the Football United Tour that also includes fellow A-League club Sydney FC.

"He was certainly looking forward to it. But he understands," Merrick said of the decision.

"He's the first to support all the players that will be playing.

"He will be with us and part of it. He'll be sitting on the bench and we'll include him as much as possible. It's just the nature of professional football."

While Lia's experience will be missed, Merrick has last year's Phoenix player of the year, Albert Riera, who will also play for the All Stars next month, new signing Alex Gorrin, Alex Rufer, Jason Hicks and Matt Ridenton to call on in midfield. They have all had game time in the recent friendly matches against local Wellington clubs.

Undoubtedly though, the English sides will provide a far, far sterner test - despite Newcastle not bringing their star players.

Merrick said he would be looking at the team's overall performance rather than focusing on the results. Wellington play West Ham in Auckland on Wednesday - the day after Sydney take on Newcastle in Dunedin. The Phoenix then play Newcastle in Wellington in a double-header on Saturday that will also see Sydney play West Ham.

"It's great preparation for the A-League. It's a measuring stick for some of the up-and-coming players as well that are pretty keen to go down that track to maybe play at that level," Merrick said.

"We just want to put on a really good display and entertaining football."

To that end, Merrick won't "park the bus". But he acknowledged his side won't be able to press as high up the field on defence as they attempted to do last season, with mixed results.

"You're taking a bit of a risk if you try and close down EPL sides in their own back third because you're pretty stretched," Merrick said.

"So we will be a bit more conservative in our defensive set-up but we won't change too much else."