Harry Souttar, Mathew Leckie, and Mitchell Duke will be amongst the first group of Socceroos to land in the United States for a pre-World Cup training camp, as Tony Popovic assesses his playing stocks one final time before settling on his 26-player squad for the tournament.
With some of his staff already on the ground to commence working with players, Popovic will depart for the Florida city of Sarasota this week to commence the camp, with Souttar, Leckie, and Duke to be joined by Hayden Matthews (Portsmouth), Anthony Cáceres (Macarthur FC), Brandon Borrello (Western Sydney Wanderers), Nick D’Agostino (Brisbane Roar), and Nishan Velupillay (Melbourne Victory).
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Inclusion in the camp doesn’t signal that the players will be in Popovic’s final squad for the World Cup — with an expanded set of players due to arrive based upon the conclusion of their club commitments and loading — but will be vital for those seeking to prove their form and fitness before the coach settles on his final 26 on June 1.
“Due to those players that you’re not sure of, we’re not sure where they are physically and how they will be by the end of May, maybe 70 to 80% [of the squad is decided],” Popovic said. “There is room for players. There’ll be some boys that are coming in next week as well that we’re still waiting to finalize and then, through different periods each week, we’ll bring in some more players as they finish their seasons as well.
“We don’t really want to have a squad of 40 or 50 in camp, that’s way too many, but we want to keep it at that mark, 26 to 30 players. If we need to carry a few players when we name the squad, which we can do until the first match, we will.”
Early arrivals in camp have been prioritised for those carrying some level of concerns surrounding their conditioning, a lack of match minutes, or — in the case of Duke, Borrello, Caceres, and D’Agostino — whose seasons ended when their sides failed to qualify for finals and cannot afford too much longer off the training track.
Featuring high humidity and temperatures regularly hitting the 30 degrees Celsius mark, the Floridian conditions will provide a challenging backdrop for those seeking to prove themselves before Popovic names his final squad on June 1, but the coach emphasised there was no one-size-fits-all mentality.
“There’s a process and a plan,” said Popovic. “We can’t just flog the players next week and say that they’ll be ready. We have to take into account where they’re at right now and the limited amount of football that they’ve played.
“Each individual is different, and there’s not just a KPI or a benchmark that they must hit to make the World Cup squad. We just need to get that player in the best shape that they can be before selection.”
After calling up 18-year-old Lucas Herrington for the March international window, the coach also signalled that he hadn’t yet closed the door on giving an opportunity to uncapped players or even those that have yet to be part of a previous camp, giving a sliver of hope to the likes of Melbourne City dynamo Marcus Younis.
“There are certain areas where we are a little bit light, and there’ll be potentially some players coming in the next week that we want to see that we haven’t had in camp before,” said the coach. “I think that maybe we’ll show everyone that we’re not that set on the squad as you may think. And there’ll be an opportunity for a few younger boys, potentially, to show what they can do in the next seven to 10 days.”
For all the talk of bolters, however, two of the Socceroos’ heroes from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Souttar and Leckie, are the headline inclusions amongst the early arrivals.
After injuring his Achilles on Boxing Day 2024, Souttar started and was amongst Leicester City‘s best in their final two Championship games after his long-awaited return, while Leckie made his first start since hip surgery and played 120 minutes in Melbourne City’s loss to Auckland FC in Saturday’s A-League Men elimination final.
“Both of those cases, Harry and Mathew, if you see how long they’ve been out for, that’s a mental resilience that you can’t buy. You have to go through that adversity, and they’ve done that,” said Popovic. “If you watch [Souttar] perform, and you watch those two games, there is presence, there is aura, and there is a leader. You can’t get that in a young player overnight. That takes time, and he’s done it at a World Cup when he played, also underdone.
“If you watch the game that was just played, Matthew Leckie was the best player on the park, at 35 with no football under his belt. A young player can’t do that as yet. That’s the difference, and that’s what you need at a World Cup. Now, will he make the World Cup? That’ll come down to his body. But if you just look at the quality of what he could do at 35 with no football under his belt, a young player can’t do that. That’s just normal.
“They’ve shown the resilience and mentality that you need at a World Cup, because you need to be able to suffer. You need to be able to go through tough times. These boys have done that in their own personal journey.”
