Melbourne Victory have made an ominous start to their A-League Women title defence, thumping Adelaide United 5-1 at AAMI Park but they will sweat on a potentially serious knee injury to captain Kayla Morrison.
Morrison went down holding her knee in the 33rd minute and was later substituted and went down the tunnel in tears.
Coach Jeff Hopkins said Victory were trying to stay positive but conceded it would be natural for Morrison, who is likely to have scans on Monday, to fear an ACL injury.
"I've not really spoken to the doctor or anything but obviously can see in her head maybe there are fears that it might be serious," he said.
"We'll see what happens tomorrow. We'll have more information tomorrow.
"Whatever it is, we'll deal with it and we will get her through it."
It was a thumping win by Victory but Hopkins expected drastic improvement.
"Great to win the game, by the margin we did, excellent, it's a dream start for us," Hopkins said.
"But probably none of us are under any illusions that it was a really good performance.
"We were quite clinical in front of goal, which was great. We capitalised on a few mistakes, which was good.
"But in general, our general play and just the intensity we played, with and without the ball, wasn't really good enough for us."
Courtney Nevin was withdrawn at halftime with hamstring tightness, with Hopkins hopeful the Matildas defender would be fit for next week.
Melina Ayres also had a hamstring issue and sat out the game.
She is touch-and-go to face Melbourne City but Hopkins expected new recruit Lynn Williams to be available.
The US forward was awaiting her international clearance on Sunday, while recovering from a knock suffered against the Matildas.
Victory snatched the lead in the 11th minute when Reds goalkeeper Annalee Grove mis-hit a clearance and Lia Privitelli pounced to bury a tap-in.
Eight minutes later they doubled their lead when Morrison had a penalty saved but buried the rebound.
In the 23rd minute, Victory added a third when Zimmerman's flick-on at the front post from a corner travelled to the back stick where Claudia Bunge buried it.
Then in the 39th minute, Zimmerman looped home a delightful long-range strike.
Adelaide came out of halftime with renewed intensity and scored in the 65th minute when Worts coolly finished from close range.
Four minutes later, Bunge hit the crossbar after a corner but the ball deflected to Privitelli to head home Victory's fifth.
"The main assessment was that good teams will punish you for your mistakes," Adelaide coach Adrian Stenta said.
"We made a bad mistake to go 1-0 down, conceded a penalty and then conceded another two goals from set pieces.
"We can't do that and expect to give ourselves a chance of winning a game."
Australian Associated Press
