Socceroos coach defends ‘tough’ call to axe star on eve of World Cup
Updated . First published
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic says it was “tough” to axe four players from his FIFA World Cup squad, and none moreso than veteran forward Martin Boyle.
Boyle missed the 2022 World Cup when he suffered a knee injury on the eve of the tournament, but was thought to be on track to play for Australia at the upcoming tournament in the Americas.
Martin Boyle. nna
But Popovic dropped a selection bombshell on Monday in axing Boyle in favour of uncapped 22-year-old Cristian Volpato, who previously represented Italy at junior tournaments before only recently pledging allegiance to Australia.
Volpato joins Tete Yengi as uncapped players in Popovic’s 26-player squad.
“He’s a very talented, young player,” the coach said of Volpato on Monday.
“He can be much better, because he’s still young, so there’s a lot of growth and potential there which pretty much sums up a lot of our players at the moment.
“He hasn’t played a lot of minutes, which we would have liked him to play more minutes, but that’s the situation we faced with him.
“But when he has come on, you can see technically a very good player, great left foot, he’s comfortable under pressure... so I’m really looking forward to working with him.”
Popovic would not divulge Boyle’s reaction to being dumped from the squad, along with fellow players Kye Rowles, Brandon Borrello, and goalkeeper Joe Gauci who were axed from the pre-tournament training squad.
“It’s tough for them, and they need to process that,” Popovic said.
Cristian Volpato celebrates a goal in the Serie A. Getty
“I’m not going to go into how (Boyle) took the news, that’s a private conversation that we had.
“He knows he’s played an important role in (us) getting here.
“We have given so many players an opportunity at different times... I’ve always kept the door open for everyone, and when you do that it can cost someone who’s been through the journey a spot at the World Cup.
“Unfortunately for Martin he was one of those players.”
The Socceroos begin their Group D campaign against Turkiye on June 14 (AEST).
Socceroos World Cup squad
Patrick Beach, Aziz Behich, Jordan Bos, Cameron Burgess, Alessandro Circati, Milos Degenek, Cameron Devlin, Jason Geria, Lucas Herrington, Ajdin Hrustic, Nestory Irankunda, Jackson Ivrine, Jacob Italiano, Paul Izzo, Matthew Leckie, Awer Mabil, Connor Metcalfe, Aiden O’Neill, Paul Okon-Engstler, Mathew Ryan, Harry Souttar, Mohamed Toure, Kai Trewin, Nishan Velupillay, Cristian Volpato, Tete Yengi.
