The 32-year-old striker suffered a hamstring strain in the closing stages of last weekend's Sydney derby, leaving the Wanderers to compete for a period with just nine players after Vitor Saba's second-half dismissal.

But just as the Wanderers were pondering their attacking stocks for arguably the most important club match in Australian football history, with Tomi Juric not match-fit and Nikita Rukavytsya ineligible, Santalab appears ready to lead the line at Parramatta Stadium.

"The scans have come back quite good. It's a positive," Popovic said at Wanderers training on Tuesday. "So now he's touch and go to be available for the weekend but we're more optimistic than what we were after the game."

The club is also hopeful of having Matthew Spiranovic return but it would appear unlikely the Socceroos' best defender would be risked in such a high-stakes match after a long lay-off following ankle surgery, leaving Brendan Hamill to again partner captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley.

While the club is quickly trying to leave behind the disastrous defeat in the Sydney derby, where they led 2-0 but ended up losing 3-2, Popovic said it was hard to initially refocus.

"I'd be lying if I said you still don't think about it on Sunday morning, but then once you reflect, you have to move on," he said. "We've always been a club that, win or lose, we've moved on, we haven't dwelled on defeats and we haven't got carried away with victories. It was a quick shift to a fantastic two weeks coming up for our football club."

Popovic said it remained a mystery how the next fortnight would play out in comparison to the normal domestic campaign. The Wanderers play their two ACL matches on back-to-back weekends, putting their A-League fixtures on hold.

"I don't know, this is the first time we've been in an Asian Champions League final. It might be a bit different as the week goes along," he said. "At the moment I just feel proud and honoured, first and foremost of this club, but secondly of a club that is in an ACL final. We're representing our country, Australian football and we're certainly very determined to have no regrets at the end of these two weeks. We feel if we can do that, we well and truly could be the first [Australian] club to hold up that trophy."

The coach is hoping the club's experience of consecutive grand final appearances will hold them in good stead for the showdown.

"I think you're better for every experience, good or indifferent, in terms of performances and results," Popovic said. "We're always looking to learn, improve and benefit from past experiences and maybe that will help us this time around. Through this whole ACL campaign, we've been on a learning trail. It started in the group stages, then you've got to have a long pause while new players come in, and you're playing quarter-finals and semis in your pre-season. For the players to get through all that, to this point, is just a credit to them."

While Al-Hilal are coming to Australia as favourites to win the two-legged tie, defender Antony Golec doesn't have much idea about the Saudi Arabian club, and nor does he seem to care, joking the visitors should be the ones Googling the Wanderers.

"I wouldn't have a clue who are they are, to be honest. I think they were ranked Asia's best by FIFA, or something like that, but it doesn't concern me if they were ranked the best club in the world or the worst," he said. "Each team we face, we show them the respect we have to but we go into the game wanting to win. Regardless of who they have, we've got great players too and we're going to look forward to hopefully winning and coming back with the trophy."

Meanwhile, Sydney FC defender Sasa Ognenovski will miss Tuesday night's AFC clash with Adelaide United after video footage showed the veteran appeared to slap the head of Saba immediately after the Wanderers' player was sent off.

The match review panel issued Ognenovski with a show cause notice on Monday and while the club pleaded his case, the judiciary opted to ban him for a week.

Former Sky Blues defender Zac Cairncross has been thrown an A-League lifeline after being signed until December by Central Coast as an injury replacement for Brent Griffiths.