Football Federation Australia (FFA) has squashed Sydney FC's bid to play Terry Antonis in Saturday's big blue with also-undefeated Melbourne Victory.

Coach Graham Arnold was clear on Thursday morning he intended to name midfield star Antonis in his squad for the match at Sydney Football Stadium.

But the FFA later issued a statement declaring Antonis is ineligible to play, after his car accident on the way to Sydney airport on Sunday prevented him joining the Socceroos squad in Japan, ahead of their international friendly with the Samurai Blue.

"FFA would like to clarify that in accordance with the FFA Statutes, players selected for international duty who are subsequently withdrawn due to injury or illness cannot play for their club during the period for which the player should have been released," it read.

"Therefore, FFA confirms that Terry Antonis is ineligible to play for Sydney FC against Melbourne Victory this Saturday."

Arnold had flagged naming Antonis, while deferring final authority to chief executive Tony Pignata.

"As far as we're concerned he'll be named in the squad later this week," Arnold said at training.

The 20-year-old Antonis suffered minor head and neck injuries in his car accident but was cleared of any serious damage by scans.

Socceroos medical staff and coach Ange Postecoglou decided it was not in Antonis' best interests to fly to Japan and he was replaced in the national squad by Swiss-based midfielder Oliver Bozanic.

Sydney FC have since monitored Antonis closely in line with the FFA's six-day concussion policy.

Arnold appeared confident of playing Antonis, saying he would complete a partial training session with team-mates on Thursday and a tactics session on Friday.

Pignata had also weighed in, tweeting on Wednesday evening that Antonis would be picked to play if passed as medically fit.

The FFA ruling does little to help Arnold's already-depleted side. Strikers Marc Janko and Corey Gameiro are on international duty and captain Alex Brosque was unable to finish Thursday's training session because of an ankle injury.

Melbourne Victory are at least as badly off, with up to nine players unavailable through injury or international duty including skipper Mark Milligan, Kosta Barbarouses, Daniel Georgievski, Connor Pain, Scott Galloway and Jason Geria.

But that is cold comfort for Arnold.

"You saw what they did against Wellington with a so-called depleted squad," he said in reference to the Victory's 2-0 win earlier this month," he said.

"(People) are tipping them as championship material and that's the depth of the squad they've got."

AAP