Leckie, who has worn the green and gold in 78 internationals, has been sidelined since February 24 with injuries and illness but will return to a City side coming off a last-start 7-0 hammering of Western Sydney Wanderers.

But in a game that shapes as crucial to the play-off hopes of City, who are currently two points adrift of the top six in seventh position, coach Vidmar may have to watch from home after battling illness this week.

"He is on the upward in terms of his health ... not sure at the moment," City assistant coach Raffaele Napoli said on Friday.

"We're in constant communication and preparation hasn't changed day-to-day pre-training, post-training, all those things have stayed the same, we're a very process-driven environment.

"So hopefully he's there. If not we will be in constant contact and we will try and get the result."

Unlike City, the Jets are done and dusted in the finals race and are focused on finishing the season as strongly as possible in their remaining five fixtures.

After an eight-game winless run, Jets coach Rob Stanton hopes his players will benefit from time off to refresh during last week's international break. He said they were looking forward to a "challenging game".

"I like the fact we're going to compete with a strong team," Stanton said

"A team that in their last game had a win by 7-0 ... you want to be tested. It will be a very good test for us as a group and some big challenges there, but I'm excited for it."

Stanton was ruing his team's eight drawn matches this season, in particular a number in which they conceded late equalisers.

"You can almost define our season in the last five minutes of games, when we've dropped some crucial points," he said.

"That's going to cost us in the end."

He said the draws at least indicated his team were in the contest most weeks.

"You're happy but disappointed at the same time," he said.

"I've had that a lot this year. Which is positive, because it means you're competitive, which is what I wanted to see from a young group.

"So I'm really happy with that, but we'll keep trying to win every game."

Stanton said he was not overly surprised to see City under pressure to make the finals, after so many years as competition heavyweights.

"It happens," he said. "It just goes to show the competition, you have to earn the right to be in the top two or three or top six.

"It just shows that if you're off just a bit, other teams can pounce. You can see that in unpredictable results and performances."

In saying that, he said City showed against Wanderers what they are capable of, when in the mood.

"They've had players out injured and things like that, but they're still a very, very good team," he said. "Obviously Wanderers will say they're a good team. We had a tough game when we played them here, when I thought we did really well. I think we'll have a tough game in Melbourne."

Meanwhile, fifth-placed Sydney FC face a crucial showdown when they host second-placed Central Coast at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.