ANGE Postecoglou insists it’s not a relief to have settled on his final 23 players for the World Cup, but has spoken of his disappointment for Tom Rogic and Josh Kennedy at the injuries that have curtailed their hopes of making the cut.
Postecoglou chose to omit Kennedy, Rogic, Luke Wilkshire and Mark Birighitti from the 27 who had travelled to Brazil, with the former two only excluded because of injury.
Kennedy’s back complaint had flared up just two days before the squad was due to be named, with team doctors predicting a recovery period of at least a week, while Rogic had struggled from the opening moments of a training game on Monday after months in inaction and injury.
It means young names like Adam Taggart and Massimo Luongo get their chance in the final 23 to take on Chile, Holland and Spain, with a friendly against Croatia to come first early on Saturday (AEST).
“I’m very disappointed for both Josh and Tommy — we wanted to give Tonmy every chance, he was struggling when he came into camp,” Postecoglou said.
“We thought with the amount of time we had him for we could make some progress, and he worked awfully hard.
“Yesterday [against a Brazilian side] was a bit of a test to see if we could build him up and I think he knew in the first minute that it just wasn’t right.
“I said to him last night, you walk away with your head held high, he didn’t give up, I had to make the decision for him. He’s just not right and needs some time away to get over his injury.
“Josh was a question of timing; he was due to play yesterday but pulled up sore with his back. Speaking with the medical team, it could have been one week or two. With too much uncertainty we had to make a decision.”
Wilkshire’s omission appears a calculated gamble with the only recognised right back, Ivan Franjic, not having trained fully for more than a week after being injured in the 1-1 draw with South Africa in Sydney.
But Postecoglou said Franjic was not a concern, and Wilkshire had been left out to allow for more options in attack.
“Ivan’s fine, players will have little niggles,” Postecoglou said.
“He’s had a great season with Brisbane, the fact he’s missed couple of games with a knock to the knee isn’t a concern to me. I’m confident he’ll be in great physical shape [for Chile].
“It’s no secret we’re light across the whole back four but at the same time we’re pretty happy with what we have got.
“There’s some variations we can play at right back and left back, and there’s other areas where we need more flexibility.”
Promising to play a largely full-strength side against Croatia in Salvador in the final warm-up game, Postecoglou said the clarity of the final 23 meant he and his players could concentrate on the World Cup itself, with the distraction of looming departures.
“It’s not so much relief, but it gives me a chance to focus in on the preparation,” Postecoglou said.
“It was a challenging exercise as I hadn’t had four-year campaign, I had six months and handful of games.
“I didn’t want to take any short cuts — ideally we would have had stronger idea before getting here. But I wanted decisions to be well considered, now we can focus on the 23.
“It’s probably a relief for players to focus on tournament without worrying about missing out.”
source:theaustralian.com.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 