Heroic referee Alex King will make a low-key return to officiating on Friday night time in Perth however received’t be answerable for a match once more till the brand new 12 months.
Still nursing a bruised head after being assaulted whereas attempting to rescue Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover throughout final Saturday night time’s violent pitch invasion at AAMI Park, King will fly to Western Australia on Thursday to carry out VAR duties within the following night time’s A-League conflict between the Glory and Wellington Phoenix at Macedonia Park.
All VAR assignments often happen at a centralised Sydney bunker, however with the Glory’s short-term house floor being solely of NPL commonplace, a scarcity of expertise means the VAR have to be on the floor.
It’s understood King had already been assigned VAR duties for this spherical earlier than he was assaulted final weekend.
King’s subsequent recreation in cost is scheduled to be on January 2 in Wellington when the Phoenix hosts Melbourne City at Sky Stadium.
That project had additionally been scheduled earlier than final Saturday night time’s pitch invasion at AAMI Park.
Sources near King – who has spent a part of this week renovating his Gold Coast house – say the Queenslander stays as passionate ever about refereeing and is keen to return to motion as quickly as doable.
Earlier the week, Football Australia referees boss Nathan Magill praised King for his bravery in operating in the direction of the oncoming pitch invaders in a bid to guard Glover, who ended up with a lower face after being hit with similar bucket which struck King’s head.
“For those who don’t know about Alex, he cares about people,” Magill advised News Corp the day after the incident.
“He just went over to Tom and thought ‘let’s get out of here together’. It was quite brave of him to try to help someone else out.”
Originally printed as Bruised official Alex King to return to A-League in VAR field
