Rogic left out after Celtic email

Published on: 01 January 2019

Australia head coach Graham Arnold has defended his decision to leave out Tom Rogic from the friendly against Oman.

The Celtic player missed the 5-0 win in Dubai due to his club's concerns over his fitness, Arnold explained.

Former Socceroos keeper Mark Bosnich, now a pundit for Fox Sports, criticised the coach for not using Rogic in the match, tweeting that it was "very poor" to have taken him away from the Old Firm derby against Rangers just to rest him.

But the coach said he'd had an email from Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers asking him not to use the midfielder against Oman due to a knee issue.

"He's got a small knee issue and it blew up on the plane, on the flight," added Arnold, who took over from Bert van Marwijk after last year's World Cup. "He's here because he wants to be here. The most important thing is the fitness and the health of the kid.

"Celtic asked us not to play him; we have emails to prove it."

Rogic, who has been carrying the knee injury all season, trained on the eve of the Oman game, but only lightly and away from the main group.

Arnold expects the 26-year-old to be fit for next weekend's Asian Cup opener against Jordan.

Skipper Mark Milligan was happy with the team's performance in their final warm-up match before the tournament and feels they will be able to take confidence into the Jordan clash.

"We wanted to use [it) to fine-tune a few things, and we wanted to get into the habit of scoring goals," said Milligan. "We've already gotten into the habit of scoring goals in training and we wanted to continue that; we ticked a number of boxes."

Australia are 3/10 to win their first game at the Asian Cup against Jordan, who are 9/1, with the draw 4/1.

View all Soccer betting

Australia head coach Graham Arnold has defended his decision to leave out Tom Rogic from the friendly against Oman.

The Celtic player missed the 5-0 win in Dubai due to his club's concerns over his fitness, Arnold explained.

Former Socceroos keeper Mark Bosnich, now a pundit for Fox Sports, criticised the coach for not using Rogic in the match, tweeting that it was "very poor" to have taken him away from the Old Firm derby against Rangers just to rest him.

But the coach said he'd had an email from Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers asking him not to use the midfielder against Oman due to a knee issue.

"He's got a small knee issue and it blew up on the plane, on the flight," added Arnold, who took over from Bert van Marwijk after last year's World Cup. "He's here because he wants to be here. The most important thing is the fitness and the health of the kid.

"Celtic asked us not to play him; we have emails to prove it."

Rogic, who has been carrying the knee injury all season, trained on the eve of the Oman game, but only lightly and away from the main group.

Arnold expects the 26-year-old to be fit for next weekend's Asian Cup opener against Jordan.

Skipper Mark Milligan was happy with the team's performance in their final warm-up match before the tournament and feels they will be able to take confidence into the Jordan clash.

"We wanted to use [it) to fine-tune a few things, and we wanted to get into the habit of scoring goals," said Milligan. "We've already gotten into the habit of scoring goals in training and we wanted to continue that; we ticked a number of boxes."

Australia are 3/10 to win their first game at the Asian Cup against Jordan, who are 9/1, with the draw 4/1.

View all Soccer betting

Source: bet365.com

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