Australia coach Graham Arnold has named an experimental Socceroos squad for an upcoming friendly with Korea Republic revealing a number of regular players were relieved to avoid a call-up.
It’s been a whirlwind 12 months for the green and gold, who have featured at the World Cup and Asian Cup, with Australia’s big-name players also juggling long club seasons in Europe.
The likes of Aaron Mooy, Mat Ryan, Tom Rogic, Trent Sainsbury and Mark Milligan have all not been included in the Socceroos upcoming squad as Arnold looks to give them a much-needed break.
“That core group of players have done a hell of a lot of traveling, they’ve played a lot of football,” Arnold said on Thursday.
“They’re fatigued, I could see it. When you see the injury status over the last six months, 50 per cent of the World Cup squad has received injuries, been out for longer than six weeks each player, so that tells its own story.
“They’ve done a lot of work and this is the only time in this period where they’ve got time to have a good holiday – not only for the physical side but for the mental side of it too.
“I spoke individually to all of those players and to be honest they were relieved that they get this break, they get a holiday for once and I expect them to be ready in September.”
Up to six players could make their Socceroos debuts in June with Arnold naming eleven players currently competing in the A-League.
While a good chance for Australia’s big-name players to rest, the friendly also allows the Socceroos coach to assess which players could be ready to step up across World Cup qualifying.
“Bert van Marwijk at the World Cup trusted probably 11 or 12 players, I will go into this World Cup campaign trusting 30,” Arnold said.
Be the first to comment