BRISBANE coach Mike Mulvey has allayed fears that Luke Brattan will miss the Roar’s clash with Melbourne City on Saturday night despite the key midfielder limping off the training paddock at Ballymore.

Brattan looked despondent as he trudged to the dressing-room alongside physiotherapist Tim Oostenbroek after suffering a corked thigh.

However, Mulvey last night had no doubt Brattan would line-up this weekend for the desperate Roar, who have lost their opening three matches of the season.

“Luke’s a tough boy — I’m confident he will play,” Mulvey said.

The Roar coach will happily allow Brattan to miss training today to ensure he is fully fit by tomorrow night.

Brattan’s teammate Thomas Broich said it was “just a cork”.

“You just have to push through the pain barrier,” said Broich, who did just that in Brisbane’s last-start 2-0 loss to Sydney FC after suffering an injury in the warm-up.

Broich said the Roar had worked “bloody hard” since the loss to the Sydneysiders and was confident of an improved showing against fellow battlers City.

“We did not waste a single second,” said the Roar marquee man, who added that Brisbane having not played last weekend was a blessing in disguise.

“It was a great chance for us to regroup. We needed to fix a few things and we had two weeks in a row where we could just focus on our problem areas. We welcomed that break.”

Broich and the Roar will also welcome the return of Socceroos midfielder Matt McKay on Saturday night following his two-match suspension.

“I’m a huge fan of Matty. He epitomises the style of Brisbane Roar,” Broich said.

“He’s always thinking ahead, he can run for 120 minutes, he plays one and two touch football, he’s making forward runs, he’s tracking everywhere on the pitch … having him not there is always a big loss for us.

“I’m super happy and actually buzzing that he’s back, and not only back, but back on my (left) side. I benefit a lot from him.”