Bruised official Alex King to return to A-League in VAR box

The brave referee who was injured as invaders stormed onto the pitch during the Melbourne derby has been placed on VAR duty this week.

Referee Alex King attempts to leave the ground as security and players try to contain fans who invaded the pitch at AAMI Park. Picture: Fox Sports

Heroic referee Alex King will make a low-key return to officiating on Friday night in Perth but won’t be in charge of a match again until the new year.

Still nursing a bruised head after being assaulted while trying to rescue Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover during last Saturday night’s violent pitch invasion at AAMI Park, King will fly to Western Australia on Thursday to perform VAR duties in the following night’s A-League clash between the Glory and Wellington Phoenix at Macedonia Park.

All VAR assignments usually take place at a centralised Sydney bunker, but with the Glory’s temporary home ground being only of NPL standard, a lack of technology means the VAR must be at the ground.

It’s understood King had already been assigned VAR duties for this round before he was assaulted last weekend.
King’s next game in charge is scheduled to be on January 2 in Wellington when the Phoenix hosts Melbourne City at Sky Stadium.

Referee Alex King tries to get away from pitch invaders. Picture: Fox Sports

That assignment had also been scheduled before last Saturday night’s pitch invasion at AAMI Park.

Sources close to King – who has spent part of this week renovating his Gold Coast home – say the Queenslander remains as passionate ever about refereeing and is eager to return to action as soon as possible.

Earlier the week, Football Australia referees boss Nathan Magill praised King for his bravery in running towards the oncoming pitch invaders in a bid to protect Glover, who ended up with a cut face after being hit with same bucket which struck King’s head.

“For those who don’t know about Alex, he cares about people,” Magill told News Corp the day after the incident.

“He just went over to Tom and thought ‘let’s get out of here together’. It was quite brave of him to try to help someone else out.”