Viduka: I’ll play on for country

Apr 11 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

MARK Viduka has decided against ending his international career – but Australia have promised to be selective about which games they use the Newcastle United striker in.

There was widespread speculation that the 32-year-old forward would retire from international football this summer but Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek claims he has persuaded one of his star players to commit to the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Although the Magpies would never say so in public, their hope must have been that Viduka would turn his back on the international game.

The sheer volume of travelling involved is a major concern, particularly for a player with Viduka’s poor fitness record.

But a compromise appears to have been struck whereby Verbeek will only call on the centre-forward if he is fit and needed in a qualifying group with no shortage of also-rans. “Mark wants to go to the World Cup,” Verbeek said. “It’s two ways of course. He said the moment he was fit he would be there, but there will be games where I need different strikers.

“That’s very much okay with him. He wants to be part of the group. He absolutely doesn’t want to say he will only come if he is a starting member.

“The only condition he made, which I understand well, is he must be 100% fit and so far this season he has not been.

“Still he is not, but he had to play a few weeks ago and every game since because Newcastle were in a difficult situation.” The Socceroos will have to play 14 games to reach the finals in South Africa and Verbeek accepts his team will be more than capable of winning some without Viduka.

“I’m very pleased with Josh Kennedy at the moment, he is playing very well, and Scott McDonald – plus we have some young players coming up, and Archie Thompson,” he said. “But in the end, Mark Viduka is Mark Viduka, and he has very specific qualities.”

Viduka’s susceptibility to niggling injuries has restricted him to just 15 Premier League starts since joining on a Bosman free transfer from Middlesbrough last summer.

Australia are due to play four qualifiers in June, but it seems highly unlikely Viduka will be asked to feature. The final round of qualifiers take place between October 2008 and November 2009.

Viduka almost quit before the 2007 Asia Cup but was reportedly talked around by coach Graham Arnold after a Press conference was scheduled for the announcement. It caused him to miss his first Newcastle pre-season.

Meanwhile, Kevin Keegan has admitted he was unable to stop Newcastle’s season drifting until the threat of relegation became palpable.

The 57-year-old was into the tenth game of his second spell as Magpies manager before tasting victory. But since finally breaking the duck United have won every match, inevitably raising questions about what took them so long.

“When I came here, we were 11th but when you looked up we were, I think, 10 points below the next team (the gap was only six, but the three teams above all had a game in hand),” recalled Keegan.

“So half of you, much as you did not like to admit it, thought it is much easier to get dragged into that than to get up there.

“We had to win three games not to move anywhere.

“That is not easy in the Premier League and until the weekend we had not won three (consecutive) games (all season). When we beat Reading that was the first time this season, so it (the league position) was not a major surprise.

“I could see us more likely getting sucked into it than not, though I thought we would get better results quicker.”

Newcastle have had yet another game rearranged for television coverage.

United’s final home match this season, against Chelsea, has been moved to Bank Holiday Monday, May 3 (kick-off 4pm) to be broadcast live on Sky Sports.