The Socceroos’ World Cup preparations have taken a dramatic twist with a standby player flown into Qatar in a move that casts further doubt over the fitness of one of Australia’s most important players.
Melbourne City midfielder Marco Tilio has joined Graham Arnold’s 26-man squad in Qatar in a surprise development a week out from Australia’s opening match against France.
It comes amid concerns about the fitness of star winger Martin Boyle, who has failed to join Australian training over the past two days as he continues his rehab from an untimely knee injury.
Under FIFA rules teams can replace players unable to compete due to injury or COVID-19 up to 24 hours before their first match.
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Scottish-born Boyle has five goals in 19 appearances for the Socceroos and is one of Arnold’s most important attacking weapons.
The Hibernian star’s tournament was thrown into doubt after suffering a knee injury in a 3-0 win over St Mirren last week. He was cleared by his Scottish club, which warned he may have to play through the pain barrier, and travelled Qatar, but Tilio’s arrival likely confirms Boyle is no certainty to be fit for the tournament — although Australia remain hopefully he can still recover in time.
Fellow midfielder Cameron Devlin was optimistic of Boyle’s chances but admitted it would be a huge blow should he not be fit to take on the reigning world champions next week
“Obviously over the years everyone can see what a big player he is – he does it week in, week out over in Scotland for Hibs. He’s been a massive player for them and takes it into his country, for Australia,” Devlin said.
“He’d be a massive loss – but I think it’s just precautionary because we’ve got the first game in a week.
“But if he wasn’t to play he’d be a massive loss.”
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Tilio, 21, was one of the players considered unlucky to miss out on Arnold’s squad when it was announced last week, having featured in the June qualifiers and September’s friendly matches against New Zealand.
He trained with Australia’s squad in Doha on Wednesday morning (AEDT).
Boyle is just one of the Australian players heading into the tournament under an injury cloud with Harry Souttar, Kye Rowles, Ajdin Hrustic and Mat Ryan others only recently returning from injury.