Tony Popovic says Wanderers can cope with Youssouf Hersi's absence against Heart Tomi Juric of the Wanderers has been in fine form. TONY Popovic will be without Youssouf Hersi for a second consecutive week, but after Western Sydney won without him for the first time last week it shouldn't put them off their stride. The Wanderers came from behind to beat Adelaide United 2-1 and tonight head to Melbourne for a clash against the struggling Heart. Hersi hasn't recovered sufficiently from bone bruising to his foot and his place is expected to be filled by Brendon Santalab. "Youssouf is not quite right yet," Popovic said. He's on the mend and we're happy with how he's progressing, but he won't be fit enough to play. You miss all good players, the key thing is that his health is right and once it comes right he becomes available. After a slow start, Popovic is pleased with how Santalab has settled in at the Wanderers. David Williams has been impressice for the Heart early in the season. He's getting better. He was quite well behind in terms of his fitness when he got to this club and he had an unfortunate illness where he missed 10 days and was bedridden for 10 days. That was just before the start of the year and you can now see he's starting to get stronger and we know he'll get better and better and we're encouraged by his progress. Heart suffered a blow earlier in the week when Harry Kewell was ruled out of the match with an ankle injury. But the late change hasn't affected Popovic's plans and he's still expecting Heart to put up a challenge. Melbourne Heart old boy Michael Beauchamp will face his old team. "Regardless of who you play it's always a tough encounter and we're under no illusions that Melbourne will be very tough and we'll have to be at our best to get a result," he said. They've got some very good players and some real pace in attack and we have to be wary of them. He (Kewell) is a very good player. We thought he might be back in, but these things happen with injuries to players. We saw him earlier in the year but he hasn't played much since.