Canberra United set to open W-League season at Viking Park in fixture revamp

United will now begin their season with a home match against Adelaide United at 4pm on December 30, after a revised first round of fixtures were published on Tuesday afternoon.

Linton's side were supposed to play in Perth on December 28, and then host Sydney FC on January 3, before a COVID-19 cluster in Sydney threw the fixture into disarray.

Matches and dates have been adjusted to account for travel restrictions with fixtures for the rest of the season set to be published by the end of the week to give clubs certainty.

It comes as United elevate rookie duo Emma Ilijoski and Sasha Grove into the top squad ahead of the club's season opener.

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"They're focusing on the football and they've got their heads in that space," Linton said.

"Sasha has been playing in the Canberra United academy this year and Emma has been playing up in Sydney in the NPL up there. Emma is a left back, Sasha is a midfielder, an attacking player.

"It's great to be able to bring them into the squad and have the opportunity for them, they've worked really well so it's nice for me to be able to do that.

"It adds a couple of different elements, a bit of depth and a couple of numbers to the squad."

Football Australia stated over the next four weeks, all clubs outside of NSW will continue to play one another, and all the clubs within NSW will continue with their games.

"We gained a significant amount of knowledge from the staging of the 2019/20 season which enabled us to move quickly and respond to these latest changes," FA head of leagues Greg O'Rourke said.

"We've mapped out the next month in light of the latest restrictions, and our focus remains on delivering the best possible football experience for every one of our 218 games between now and June 2021.

"We're five days out from the start of an historic season and we are all ready for the summer of football to begin."