Perth Wildcats centre Matt Knight has been ruled out of Friday night’s game against play-off hopefuls Sydney after failing to overcome a calf muscle injury.

Knight strained his right calf muscle at training last week and will miss a second consecutive game, but the Wildcats are confident he will return against Townsville on Saturday week.

Knight has been sidelined for one-third of the Wildcats’ games in a horror run with injury since joining the club last season.

The 204cm giant, who was named by his peers as one of the league’s most intimidating players in a recent poll, will be sorely missed against a Sydney line-up that boasts star big men Julian Khazzouh and Jerai Grant.

“It’s a significant loss because Khazzouh is the best big man in the league and every time that Matt has played against Khazzouh, I think Matt has had his number,” Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge told thewest.com.au.

“They played on the same team at West Sydney and they understand each other’s games.

“The last couple of times they’ve played against each other, Matty’s just made Khazzouh’s life difficult because of how physical he is.”

Beveridge has rested nearly half his squad this week in a bid to keep the players fresh as the long season starts to take its toll.

Brad Robbins, Damian Martin, Kevin Lisch and Shawn Redhage have all had time off from training, while Greg Hire missed part of a session earlier in the week with a minor elbow injury.

However, Knight is the only player unavailable for Friday’s game at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

“We’ve just got to be really smart that we don’t overtrain the players and give them as much recovery time as we can,” Beveridge said.

Melbourne have wasted no time in signing a replacement for sacked import Ayinde Ubaka, adding Texan point-guard Myron Allen to the roster.

Allen, 32, has played extensively in the Americas and Asia, and joins the Tigers after club owner Seamus McPeake sensationally dumped Ubaka last week.