Adelaide United have decided to rest skipper Travis Dodd and goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic for tomorrow night's clash with Sydney FC.

The Reds captain will miss the Week 20 midweek fixture because of a badly bruised ankle and coach Rini Coolen decided that it would be better for the attacking midfielder to sit this match out and get ready for Sunday's meeting with league leaders Brisbane Roar.

"We took the decision not to play Travis Dodd, he's already had a few injuries and he's got another one now on his foot. If we wanted to take a lot of risk we could wait until tomorrow and see if he's available as a substitute, but I don't think it's fair to take that risk, so he has to focus on the next game," Coolen said.

"Given one or two days more he could most likely have started but at the moment it is too soon and we're hopeful of him being ready to play on Sunday."

And Galekovic will miss his first match since October 31, 2008 with a hand problem.

"We made the decision for him (Galekovic) to have a break and we know we have a break in two weeks, so we'll use that extra week, so if he can rest for three weeks and focus on some other kind of training sessions, he will start the game after our break (against North Queensland Fury on January 21)," Coolen added.

Second-placed Adelaide, who are currently on a three-game losing streak, host bottom-of-the-table Sydney at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, 29 December - kick-off is at 7:30pm local time (8:00pm AEDT).