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Postecoglou Does Not Give Guarantees for Tim Cahill’s Extended International Presence

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Tim Cahill has been the mainstay for the Australian national team for more than a decade.


Since making his debut for the national team in 2004, the attacking midfielder has gone on to make 94 appearances and scored 48 goals. It is an impressive return for someone who plays as a second striker. For this reason, Cahill has been regarded as irreplaceable in the national team, but age has certainly been catching up with the player. At 37 years of age, he is one of the oldest international players around. The talk of retirement has come about several times and manager Ange Postecoglou reckons that it is up to the player to decide on his international future.

He did confirm that Cahill will remain as the integral part of the team for the time being. Lack of fitness and that the 37-year-old was unable to take part in the 2-2 draw with Thailand. This was the third consecutive drop for the national team in the World Cup qualification campaign.

Hence, there is tremendous pressure on the manager in order to get victories in the upcoming games against Iraq and UAE in March. It will be followed by a game against Saudi Arabia in June. Recent draws have left Australia one point below Saudi Arabia and Japan in the qualification group.

“He’s still a very important part of my set-up. He hasn’t played for the national team a lot in the back half of this year, but I think that was more because he hadn’t got consistent club football and he’s had a few issues early in the A-League. But if he’s fit and well and playing regularly he always has an impact, he showed that in the UAE for us.How long that continues is really up to him and his form and nothing is showing me yet that that’s going to disappear in the near future,” said Postecoglou.