The midfielder was named in New Zealand’s original 20-man squad but did not take part in the first game, a 1-0 success over Papua New Guinea yesterday, as he was involved in an A-League fixture for Melbourne Victory against former side Wellington Phoenix in Australia last night.
He was due to fly out to New Zealand following that match to join his Oly Whites team mates but those plans have now been dashed after Rojas received a nasty knock to the head in a challenge with Manny Muscat early on in Victory’s 3-0 win.
Oly Whites coach Neil Emblen confirmed that his star player would not be coming to Taupo this morning and expressed the New Zealand camp’s disappointment at the setback.
“Marco was in hospital all last night and it looks like he’s got a fractured jaw,” Emblen said.
“We were in contact with the Melbourne Victory doctor and it sounds like there’s definitely a fracture there and some mild concussion so it’s very likely that he’s going to be unavailable,” he continued.
“It’s unfortunate for everyone because now the lad has missed out and we’ve missed out and the Phoenix lost as well so it wasn’t a good night. He’s like Messi to Argentina really in this kind of environment so it’s sad that we’ve not been able to bring him in.”
Despite losing the services of a player who arguably would’ve been the finest on show at the tournament, Emblen is remaining upbeat about New Zealand’s chances.
“We knew that he was looking forward to it and could have made a big difference but we’re very conscious of the fact that the other 19 players we’ve got in the squad can do the job as well,” Emblen said.
The Oly Whites did not perform to the best of their abilities in the Papua New Guinea win but Emblen has changed his opinion on the match after a night of reflection.
“Looking back at yesterday’s game, it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought when we originally played. We’ve watched it again and we had plenty of chances. We hit the post and the bar and had stuff cleared off the line, and still didn’t really look like conceding goals. We’re looking to build on that and get the momentum up before the semi-finals.”

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