STAJCIC’S DISTRACTION CONCERNS

ALEN Stajcic hopes ongoing controversy about his sacking as Matildas coach doesn’t derail the national team’s World Cup campaign.

Stajcic says up to 25 Matildas players have sent messages of support to him since he was axed as coach on January 19.

“I haven’t engaged with them deliberately,” Stajcic told Macquarie Sports Radio yesterday. “They have their own careers to focus on ... there’s a point in time they have got focus on the World Cup, it’s only four months away.

“As an athlete it’s something you grow up dreaming of and they’re at the pointy end now where they have to focus.

“I have deliberately tried to keep my distance but there has been probably over 20, 25 players, who have reached out and sent messages of support which has been great.”

After the axed coach broke his silence on Monday, Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Chris Nikou said in a statement that Stajcic had admitted the Matildas’ team environment was “dysfunctional”. Stajcic refused to specifically respond to the FFA statement.

“I don’t want to get into titfor-tat comments about what was said behind closed doors, I don’t think that is a professional way to behave,” he said. Stajcic said he had not thought about whether he would be willing to coach the Matildas again if FFA did a backflip. “That’s a tough question. The state of mind that I’m in at the moment, I can’t even contemplate something like that,” he said.