Young was battling for his life early this year when he spent months in hospital - including several weeks in intensive care - when he suffered an adverse reaction to antibiotics administered after an operation to repair his badly broken nose.

The stoic 31-year-old endured five bouts of surgery on his digestive system and at one stage lost 20 kilograms, because he was unable to eat for four weeks.

Young had been cleared to resume light training a month ago and had been making encouraging progress until he became ill this week.

"I've got the flu but it just seems to have hit me twice as hard, because of the way I was," he said yesterday.

"It's just frustrating. Everyone gets the flu but this has hit me a bit more than I expected.

"And also I didn't want to pass it on to any of the other players.

"They don't need me hanging around with the flu."

Young, who appeared in nine A-League games last season before his nose was smashed by a stray boot from Gold Coast striker Shane Smeltz, was gradually regaining his fitness and strength and had "put a few kilos back on".

Asked when he felt he might be fit to be considered for selection, Young replied: "Who knows, to be honest with you. I was thinking I was about six or seven weeks away but I just have to see."

Jets coach Branko Culina said Young's well-being was the priority and he had been advised to rest.

"He's had some absolutely rotten luck but let's just hope everything works out health-wise for him," Culina said.

"He's a lovely guy, plus he added a lot to the team last year when we needed it most.

"But we just want him to get well. That's the most important thing at this stage of his life.

"He's gone through a rotten period over the past four or five months and the most important thing is he gets himself well and we'll worry about everything else then."

The Jets have signed former Bradford, Leicester and North Queensland Fury keeper Paul Henderson on an injury waiver while Young is recuperating.