{"id":514782,"date":"2026-03-04T23:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514782\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:58:11","slug":"hamstring-knee-ankle-troubles-for-auckland-fc-and-no-fitness-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/514782\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamstring, knee, ankle troubles for Auckland FC and no fitness coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Auckland<\/p>\n

\nAuckland FC captain Hiroki Sakai has dealt with a hamstring injury for most of the season.
\nPhoto: Shane Wenzlick \/ Photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

An injury-hit Auckland FC could see out the A-League season without a fitness coach and the club still will not divulge why they suddenly parted ways with Elias Boukarim<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

Boukarim had been the club’s inaugural head of performance and the Australian was involved with fitness and injury prevention. He was known for being a hard taskmaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The club said after Boukarim’s unexplained departure he had returned to Sydney to be with family.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday coach Steve Corica was still tight-lipped about why Boukarim had left after a season and a half saying he “would prefer not to” elaborate further.<\/p>\n

“It’s not great when you lose someone of his experience and what he did for the club was excellent and we want to thank him for that.”<\/p>\n

Corica did not believe the team’s current injury toll of six unavailable players for Sunday’s game against Perth Glory in Auckland was related to not having a head of performance.<\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/p>\n

\nLouis Verstraete of Auckland FC is making his way back from injury.
\nPhoto: Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

Captain Hiroki Sakai was sidelined again, for up to a month, after experiencing pain in his right hamstring mid-way through the win over Melbourne City. It is an injury that has plagued him several times this season.<\/p>\n

Nando Pijnaker sprained his ankle on the training pitch ahead of the derby against the Wellington Phoenix and is still a couple of weeks away from playing, as is Marlee Fran\u00e7ois who has bone bruising on his foot.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Oli Sail suffered a season-ending knee injury<\/a> the last time Auckland played Glory in January and fellow keeper Joe Knowles is also dealing with an injury.<\/p>\n

Midfielder Louis Verstrate had a hamstring injury but should be fit enough to return to training in the coming days but he was still in doubt for Sunday’s game.<\/p>\n

Corica said not much had changed since Boukarim left when it came to strength and conditioning.<\/p>\n

“The programme is still set up obviously Theo’s [Van der Mei] been doing that job since Elias has left, but he was learning from Elias so he’s not quite there yet.<\/p>\n

“He’s doing a great job but that is a position we need to fill and look for someone else in the near future.”<\/p>\n

Corica said they could “possibly” fill the role by the end of the season.<\/p>\n

“Maybe not if we don’t get the right person we will have to continue the way we are and try and find someone for next season.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auckland FC captain Hiroki Sakai has dealt with a hamstring injury for most of the season. Photo: Shane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[328,49,48,327,407,84,44,329,326,324,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-514782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-current-affairs","12":"tag-fitness","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-podcasts","16":"tag-public-radio","17":"tag-radio-new-zealand","18":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}