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Socceroos midfielder Jason Culina’s knee-related exit from the Asian Cup may not be the last time he is afflicted by the problem.
His A-League coach Miron Bleiberg has predicted Culina will be dogged by degenerative knee trouble for the remainder of his career.
Just moments after Australia booked a semi-final spot with a 1-0 win over Iraq in the quarter-finals, Australian officials announced Culina would take no further part in the Asian Cup campaign and had left Qatar.
The Gold Coast United skipper aggravated the injury in Australia’s Group C 1-1 draw with South Korea and has not played in the two matches since, with Carl Valeri taking his place in central midfield.
Culina left Doha on Saturday and said in a statement he was “extremely disappointed” to leave the camp.
“Unfortunately, I knew that I wouldn’t be at my best for the remainder of the competition,” Culina said.
“I’m thankful (Socceroos coach) Holger (Osieck) has allowed me to return home to hopefully recover as soon as possible.”
Bleiberg will be hoping that’s the case at this crucial stage of the A-League season, but is worried that Culina will be fighting his knees until he retires.
“It’s not a matter of a serious injury, it’s more wear and tear,” Bleiberg told AAP.
“It’s something that he’ll probably suffer with until the end of his career.
“There’s many players in the same category, it’s nothing new in football these young players with the body of 30-year-olds and the knees of 50-year-olds.”
There are five matches left before the finals for the fourth-placed Gold Coast, including clashes with the league’s top three teams – Brisbane, Adelaide and the Central Coast.
“I don’t expect him to be ready in a week or two,” Bleiberg said.
“But maybe he’ll surprise us and have a few days rest and be ok again, we don’t know.
“I’m not expecting a miracle but we shall see.”
Bleiberg said he’d been in contact with his team’s marquee man and suspected that the injury flared up as a result of not enough rest between matches.
“I’ve spoken to Jason and of course he is disappointed but when he comes back he’ll get a specialist opinion and we’ll continue from there,” he said.
“He left us here and he had a bit of pain and he went off on his Asia venture.
“I’m not a doctor, but I think what’s happened is in these situations you need a bit of rest between games and they played one game against India and then a few days after they had this tough game against Korea and it was too early for him.
“So now he’s back to square one.”
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