A tumultuous night of European football has Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak in doubt for Australia’s World Cup qualifiers but has sent gloveman Mat Ryan into club football’s elite.
Jedinak could miss Australia’s qualifiers against Bangladesh and Tajikistan over the next fortnight after injuring his hamstring playing for Crystal Palace.
Jedinak came off early in the second half of the Eagles’ 4-1 League Cup win on Monday over Shrewsbury Town.
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew was concerned the injury could sideline his captain and midfielder for some time.
“I’m a little bit worried about the skipper. He might have done a hamstring, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Pardew said.
“We think he might have done something a little bit long term, but we’ll have to assess him in the morning.”
Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou told Fox Sports News he was pleased to see Jedinak start after just two substitute appearances totalling nine minutes in Palace’s English Premier League campaign thus far.
But he’s equally as unsure as to Jedinak’s availability.
“We’ll wait until tonight our time to get a clearer diagnosis on what the issue is or how severe it is … our medicos got in contact with theirs,” he said.
Jedinak’s struggles are in stark contrast with first-choice Socceroos goalkeeper Ryan.
On the same night as his national team skipper was injured, the 23-year-old won through to the group stages of the Champions League with new club Valencia.
The Spanish side triumphed 4-3 on aggregate over Monaco to secure a place in what Postecoglou called the “absolute pinnacle” of club football.
“I watched the game and it was quite nerve wracking at the end,” he said.
“It’s great for Matty – he’s going to be playing in a rarified atmosphere now.
“There’s no doubt he’ll get some big guns in his group … it’s going to be great for his development.”
While he plays his club football in arguably the world’s No.1 national league, Ryan and his Socceroos teammates will be battling the world’s No.170 nation in Bangladesh next week.
Postecoglou says he’ll make sure the lowly ranking of the cricket-obsessed nation doesn’t enter his players’ minds.
“Regardless of the opposition, they’re World Cup qualifiers and we want to be well prepared for them,” he said.
“We had people at (Bangladesh’s) games, scouting those games live and we’ve also got vision from it.
“By the time the boys get into camp, we’ll have done all our analysis and have all the information ready for them.”
Australia play Bangladesh in Perth on September 3 and then travel to play Tajikistan on September 8.
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