Olyroos skipper Mark Milligan is poised to replace his suspended Sydney FC club captain Tony Popovic against Queensland next weekend.

Experienced central defender Popovic is unavailable for the A-League game at Sydney Football Stadium after being sent off against Wellington last Saturday.

Olyroos central defensive linchpin Milligan has emerged as the likely candidate to replace Popovic, provided he comes through Australia's final Olympic qualifier against North Korea in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

"It will probably be a straight swap with Mark Milligan," said Sydney coach John Kosmina, who will be hoping Milligan and fellow defender Ruben Zadkovich both emerge unscathed from the Olyroos game.

Kosmina was also hoping influential midfield playmaker Steve Corica would be available to face the Roar after missing the Wellington game with a groin strain.

"He trained this morning, we had a recovery come proper session down at the beach and he was okay with that and he's done some work on the weekend," Kosmina said.

"He seems to have responded well to the treatment we gave him and with the layoff on the weekend I'll see how he goes.

"We're having a bit of a gym session tomorrow and they've got Wednesday off and we're not doing a full training session till Thursday so I will assess him a bit later on."

Kosmina revealed another injured midfielder, Terry McFlynn, who has missed the last four rounds with ankle damage, could return to action for the prestigious friendly against LA Galaxy next week.

"He is starting to train more frequently with the team, he isn't involved in any football stuff just yet," Kosmina said.

"He may get 20 minutes against the Galaxy in a week's time and we'll see how he goes from there."

A win over Wellington would have lifted Sydney into third heading into a testing bunch of games.

Fifth placed Sydney plays the four teams above it in the next five rounds.

"We're going to take them one at a time, but it would be nice to come out of the next four matches with as many points as possible," said Kosmina, who has yet to taste defeat after four games in charge.

"We don't want to be leaving it to the last week or two of the season to make the finals."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP