Lake Macquarie have stood down veteran striker John Majurovski for Wednesday night's NPL catch-up game against Maitland as he faces a potential eight-match ban for match official abuse.
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Majurovski, who turned 40 last month, was given back-to-back yellow cards for dissent in the 87th minute following a disallowed goal against Edgeworth in last Wednesday night's 5-1 defeat at Macquarie Field.
The three-time league leading scorer chested down a ball and hit it on the turn but the goal was denied for handball, sparking the verbal abuse which continued as he left the field.
Majurovski served the mandatory one-match suspension for the bookings in Lakes' 3-0 loss to New Lambton on Saturday, but he was also given a show cause notice as to why he should not receive an additional eight-match suspension.
That sanction is the minimum under regulation R8 (5), which covers "threatening or intimidating language and/or conduct towards a match official or conduct reasonably perceived as a threat of physical violence towards a match official or their family or property".
The show cause notice has to be answered by the end of this week, meaning Majurovski could play against Maitland at Macquarie Field on Wednesday before his call for leniency is heard.
However, Lakes coach Steve Piggott said the club had instructed him not to select Majurovski.
The loss is another blow for the last-placed Roosters, who have one point from 10 games and another experienced player, Josh Maguire (calf), still sidelined.
"It is what it is, you've just got to go through the process," Piggott said.
"He's got to answer to it and we'll go from there. But it doesn't help us one bit losing a quality player."
He lamented lapses in defence which led to two first-half goals for New Lambton in Saturday's 3-0 loss.
"We had plenty of ball in the second half and couldn't do much with it," he said.
"We had 12 shots on goal to their three in the second half and a bigger percentage of the ball in the areas we need to, so it's not all one-sided, but you can't give a two-goal start in the first half.
"There's a couple of changes [to the roster] in the window next week maybe and we'll see how we go from there. But it is what it is. We've just got to do what we can with the players we've got and hopefully we pinch a point here and win a game there.
"It's not lack of desire or trying. We've just got to stop the mistakes giving teams a head start."
Maitland, coming off 6-0 (cup) and 5-0 (NPL) wins over Adamstown last week, still have Tom Davies (broken hand), Ty Paulson (work), keeper Paul Bitz (knee) and Jacob Bailey (Achilles) out.
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