Axe looms for key ‘Roos ahead of Cup
LEADING striker Tomi Juric looks set to miss tonight’s crunch friendly against the Czech Republic, in the Socceroos’ final test run before squad selection D-day.
Andrew Nabbout, late inclusion Jamie Maclaren or Tim Cahill will start up front, in one of the positions where cutthroat auditions continue before the squad is chopped to 23 on Monday.
Right-back and attack are where the other culls will most likely take place, although coach Bert van Marwijk was remaining tight-lipped ahead of the Czech game, 15 days out from the Russia 2018 opener against World Cup heavyweights France.
Swiss-based Juric remains in Russian contention despite his knee injury, having trained fully for the past two days, with either him or Maclaren likely to board the Kazan-bound flight. Fran Karacic (Lokomotiv Zagreb), Josh Risdon (Western Sydney) or Josh Brillante (Sydney FC) will be cut, while there is less clarity around the top-heavy attacking spots.
Van Marwijk admitted he thought Juric was a long shot only days ago.
“If I had to give you an answer (on Juric) five days ago, maybe I was doubting. Now he trained for two days and doesn’t complain, so I think now he has a chance,” he said.
“You can see the players are not used to this intensity ... you see when they are tired, the levels go down.”