Star Perth Glory striker Shane Smeltz has been ruled out of Saturday night’s home A-League clash with Newcastle due to an ankle injury, but coach Ian Ferguson is confident the New Zealand international will be back in action next week.

Smeltz, who has been battling the ankle complaint for several weeks now, has had a blood injection in the area in a bid to finally fix the issue.

The 30-year-old will need to rest for about four days but is expected to return for Saturday week’s home clash with Brisbane Roar, where he will be aiming to score his 10th goal of the season.

Irish striker Billy Mehmet, who signed a two-year contract extension on Thursday, will be a straight swap for Smeltz in the starting line-up against Newcastle.

“That’s the beauty of having two spots for each position, where if one drops out you’ve got another quality player to come in and hopefully Billy can do the job,” Ferguson said on Friday.

In some promising news for the Glory, defender Scott Neville is expected to return from a long-term knee injury via the Glory Youth League team next week, while Todd Howarth (groin) and Josh Mitchell (knee) are on track to link up with the youth side this weekend.

Fifth-placed Newcastle (28 points) will join the Glory in fourth spot should they record their fourth straight win.

Perth’s eight-game unbeaten run was brought to a halt by last week’s 2-1 loss to Sydney, and Ferguson said it was crucial his players bounced back against in-form Newcastle.

“This is a massive game for us. It’s a six-pointer,” Ferguson said.

The Glory have re-signed Mehmet, Josh Risdon and skipper Jacob Burns in recent weeks.

But with a host of players still uncontracted for next season, Ferguson admitted it was a delicate balancing act in trying to ensure team harmony remained strong.

“That’s always been my biggest fear,” Ferguson said.

“We’ve got a lot of players out of contract and we’ve got to try and keep as many as we can.

“With budgets getting cut and so on we have to be careful, we can’t just rush in and sign all these players.

“We’ve got to take our time and make sure the budget will work out so we can take on as many players as possible.”