Nikolai Topor-Stanley will break the A-League Men's games record when Western United take on Central Coast, and coach John Aloisi believes the defender can become the first player to 400 games.
Topor-Stanley will play his 359th league match on Saturday, overtaking former United skipper Andrew Durante as the competition's longest-standing player.
"He will break it and it's an amazing feat. It's not only because he's such a great player and a talented defender, it also shows the professionalism and the way he's gone about his career," Aloisi said.
"Because early on he probably wasn't as professional ... but then over time he learned how to look after himself and look after his body and that's why he's been able to play so many games.
"It's a lot of games, 359, in the A-League especially because when we started it was only a 20-game season and if you didn't make finals, that was it.
"The amount of games he's been able to play is incredible and I still think that he'll get to 400.
"Just watching him train and watching him move still and play, he hasn't missed a beat with us."
Aloisi said the 37-year-old's speed was underrated while his size, presence and ability to read the game set him above many of his contemporaries.
Neil Kilkenny will return from personal leave but Aloisi conceded the prognosis was "not looking great" for luckless defender Josh Risdon, with United still gathering information on his ankle injury.
Meanwhile, Aloisi is confident Alessandro Diamanti will return this season after a prolonged absence with a knee injury.
"I'm pretty confident he will play again this season but it's one of those ones that it's hard to say when and how quickly he'll come back," he said.
"I can't give you a timeline on it but we're pretty confident and positive he'll be back and hopefully when we're challenging, that would be nice."
United will have their work cut out against dynamic Mariners attackers Marco Urena and Jason Cummings.
"They work really well together, they're hard working, especially going forward," Aloisi said.
"So the players understand their movements and understand what they're going to come up against.
"Then it's up to us to try to limit them as much as possible but also (when we're) with the ball, make them run as much as possible so they don't run as much when they get the ball."
