The Socceroos will be playing for injured teammate Jason Culina when they face Uzbekistan in Wednesday morning’s (AEDT) Asian Cup semi-final in Qatar.
Culina was forced to leave the Australian camp prior to the 1-0 quarter-final win over Iraq on Saturday to return home and seek treatment on an ongoing knee problem.
The Gold Coast midfielder aggravated the injury during Australia’s 1-1 Group C draw with South Korea ultimately ruling him out for the rest of the campaign.
“To lose a leader and a great player such as Jason, is tough,” said midfielder Carl Valeri, who has replaced Culina in central midfield.
“All the 22 players here, they’re all working really hard and know that we’re doing this for Jason as well.”
The Socceroos put the final touch on preparations for the semi-final on Monday afternoon, with Holger Osieck putting his squad through its paces at Khalifa Stadium.
Defender Luke Wilkshire missed the start of training but officials said it was precautionary and he would be fit to take on the Uzbeks.
Star goal-poacher Tim Cahill trained with the squad just hours after Osieck had declared him a certain starter.
“There’s no worry about Tim Cahill at all, he is fit he’s in good spirit and there is no question about him playing tomorrow,” Osieck said.
With the rest of his squad expected to be fit and Brett Emerton returning from suspension, Osieck faces a tough task of dropping Matt McKay back to the bench, despite his stand-out performance against Iraq.
Uzbekistan are ranked 108th in the world but are confident of beating the Socceroos to a spot in the final against either South Korea or Japan.
“Australia is a good team, but they’re also not Brazil,” coach Vadim Abramov said.
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