Already dealing with back-to-back losses to Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC, City’s short-term fortunes were struck a further blow on Monday when Connor Metcalfe, Denis Genreau, Tom Glover and Ramy Najjarine were all called up by Graham Arnold for the 2020 AFC U23 Championships.

All four have started games and made key contributions for Mombaerts’ side this season – with Glover most recently supplanting Dean Bouzanis as the club’s number one goalkeeper.

Nonetheless, with the quartet set to be absent until at least round 15 and possibly until round 17, City now finds themselves suffering from success; their best young players recognised for their achievements by being called away to represent their nation.

When asked on Thursday, Mombaerts was halfhearted on the prospect of bringing in replacements during the January window – pointing out that the quartet will all be returning by the end of the month.

Instead, it is likely that the departed Olyroos – as well as Rostyn Griffiths, should he prove unable to play after picking up a knock against Sydney – will be replaced by prospects from City’s academy.

Moudi Najjar, Stefan Colakovski, Idrus Abdulahi and Yaya Dukuly will all come into contention for United’s visit – while young scholarship goalkeeper Joe Gauci will back up Bouzanis.

Najjar and Colakovski have previously seen minutes for City this season, while Abdulahi – who debuted for City as a 15-year-old in 2018/19 – was an unused substitute in round seven.

16-year-old Dukuly, who like Abdulahi was a member of Trevor Morgan’s squad at the 2019 U17 World Cup, would make his senior debut should he see the field.

“Yes, we have four players away, but they will come back,” Mombaerts said. “We don’t know if they are coming back in a few days or maybe at the end of January, so it’s difficult to manage this situation. We can’t complain, because it’s like that – but it’s difficult.

“We can bring some young players and it’s a good chance for academy players for them to show they have qualities. But they are very young.

“Tomorrow we’ll have Yaya [Dukuly], we’ll have Cola [Stefan Colakovski], we’ll have Moudi [Najjar] and maybe Idrus if Rostyn [Griffiths] cannot be on the bench. So, very young.

“Maybe Nathaniel [Atkinson] and Walesy [Lachlan Wales] can start also.

A former boss of the French U18 and U21 sides, Mombaerts does have a history with developing and bringing through young players – one of the goals the City Football Academy has for its Melbourne outpost.

“We used to play with young players in France, but it’s a little bit different because they start to train earlier,” Mombaerts explained when asked how French academies compared to their Australian equivalents.

“Because we have two types of academies [In France], we have one academy where they start at 11 or 12, so there it’s totally different.

“So, in France, at 18 you’re able to play professionally. You’re able. If not, you have to leave. You have to leave if you’re not good enough. So that’s why we used to do this.

“Every professional club in France has a big and good academy because it’s a way, the only way maybe, to sell players. It’s like that. So that’s why we used to do this.

“Here, it’s totally different.

“But I’m also happy because it’s City Football Group, they want to do this, we want also to improve also the first team, we want also to improve the academy and we’ve started to do this in Melbourne City

“We have some good young players, but they are very young.”