Socceroos star suffers fresh injury blow as Popovic outlines A-League stumbling block

Socceroos coach Tony Popovic admits he is “concerned” by a recurring hamstring injury which looks set to sideline Jordan Bos for the next international window, and says the A-League’s five-month off-season is making it more difficult for Australian players to adjust to the physicality of the European game.

Bos has been in immense form for both club and country since his move to Robin van Persie’s Feyenoord, but his progress has again been stifled by injury.

The 22-year-old, who was named the Dutch Eredivisie’s player of the month for September, went down late in their 3-2 defeat to PSV Eindhoven on Monday (AEDT) with what is at least the third hamstring issue of his career.

Popovic is awaiting more information about the injury, but it appears unlikely Bos will be involved in Australia’s upcoming friendlies against Venezuela and Colombia in the United States next month. Fellow young gun Adrian Segecic will also miss out with a four-to-six week ankle injury he suffered while playing for Portsmouth.

“Of course we’re concerned,” Popovic said on Tuesday when asked about Bos’ injury record.

“We don’t want any players to get injured, and he’s a young player that we’ve seen perform at such a high level … he’s taken his game to another level, so it’s disappointing for him.

“It’s also part of football as well. And I’m sure with our medical staff in constant dialogue with Feyenoord’s, they’ll try and do everything they can to stop this happening.

“He’s a very explosive player, so that can happen. Unfortunately, it’s happened to him a couple of times now. We’ll just make sure that we can support him any way off the field, but also in any of his rehabilitation, that we can help him get back bigger and stronger than what he is now, which will make him a great player for us at the World Cup.”

Though Bos’ hamstring problems are unique to him, it is seemingly a rite of passage for Australian players who sign for clubs in Europe to break down with injuries upon their arrival as they struggle to adjust to what Popovic described as a “big jump” in physical demands.

The A-League’s regular season lasts 26 games, while players can be asked to play up to nearly double that amount in most of Europe’s top leagues, and no amount of preparation can harden their bodies for that challenge.

Echoing a regular criticism of his predecessor Graham Arnold, Popovic said the break between the A-League grand final in May and the start of the next season in mid-October - one of the longest off-seasons in world football - remained a major issue in preparing exports.

“How do we get around that?” he said.

“The players are training, they’re working hard, but it’s such a long off-season. Now you see in the A-League, there are a lot of players breaking down after a couple of games. That’s just normal ... they’re playing pre-season games at one level and then [the intensity] goes through the roof when the competition comes.

“I’d love to see us have six to eight weeks off, [and the] season starts again. I think you would find that the players would present in much better condition when they go to Europe, if that was the case.

“You can’t compare 26 games to someone playing 40 to 50 in Europe - and then if a player [in the A-League] has an injury and he misses four games, he’s played 22, he finishes at the end of April if he doesn’t make the playoffs, and his [next] game is the middle of October.

“You can be very professional, you can work hard, you can have a great set-up at the club, but you still have to bridge that somehow and that’s something that’s difficult for us.”

There is better news on the injury front: Segecic’s Portsmouth teammate Hayden Matthews has been cleared of any major damage after suffering cramp, while regular Socceroo Jackson Irvine and Riley McGree have returned for their clubs, FC St. Pauli and Middlesbrough, after lay-offs, putting them back in the frame for international selection.

Next month’s games will be the last for the Socceroos in 2025. After that, there will only be the March window, which Popovic said would likely involve games in Australia, before he finalises his squad and brings his players together for their World Cup pre-camp.

At No. 13 in the world, Colombia will be the highest-ranked opponent of the Popovic era - and along with Venezuela (No. 50), the first South American sides the Socceroos will have faced under his watch. After plans for a friendly against Argentina in India fell through, the chance to face two other CONMEBOL nations and return to the United States, one of three co-hosts for next year’s World Cup, was one Popovic said they couldn’t knock back.

“When you factor the type of opposition we have and where it’s played, we feel very grateful that we have this opportunity,” he said.