Juric battles wounded knee

STRIKER Tomi Juric was left to ponder what may have been after a knee issue compromised his World Cup preparations.

Juric, who scored five goals in qualifying matches, having established himself as the chief striker under former coach Ange Postecoglou, drew a blank in his only World Cup start before making way for Tim Cahill in the Socceroos’ Peru loss.

Limping into Russia, it was a stark contrast to his blazing start to the season with Swiss side Luzern before his knee woes left him playing second fiddle to Andrew Nabbout.

“It definitely wasn’t how I wanted to come in and go about the World Cup,’’ Juric said.

“I feel like there was this little thing holding me back, to kind of unleash, to do my best preparation and put my best foot forward. I was playing on one leg for a lot of the time. It settled the last few weeks. At the start it wasn’t great, I don’t want to make any excuses, but it is what it is.’’

Juric, 26, admitted an arthroscopy could be on the cards, but would assess that with his club.

“I don’t know. I’ll go back, probably get some scans on my knee and we’ll see what needs to be done. There’s a break of about two weeks, so I’ll discuss that with my club and go from there,’’ he said.

“I can’t change it, you’ve gotta go on with it. Unfortunately we didn’t get the results, we move on now.

“That’s the hardest thing to swallow, that the points didn’t show in our performances. People are going to look back and just see the results.”