Mark Milligan ponders retirement after Socceroos’ bitter Asian Cup defeat

Socceroos captain Mark Milligan has dropped a strong hint he may soon retire from international football, saying he has done a lot of thinking about hanging up the boots.

Socceroos captain Mark Milligan has dropped a strong hint he may soon retire from international football.

Six months ago new coach Graham Arnold convinced the veteran utility to postpone a decision he was seriously considering after the World Cup, and in November appointed him as Mile Jedinak’s successor leading into the Asian Cup.

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But after Australia went out in the quarter-finals early on Saturday, Milligan revealed he was still doing a lot of thinking about hanging up the boots.

“I have, a lot,” the 33-year-old said.

“Not so much in the last week or two, more so before that. Look, I don’t know. I think I’ll have to take some time to reflect on this. I don’t think I’m in any state at the minute to make a decision on anything.”

Mark Milligan is thinking about hanging up the boots. Picture: AP

He admitted that it would be difficult to go out on the negative note of a premature Asian Cup exit.

“But the other part is, can you spend four years trying to redeem it?” he said.

Milligan’s leadership in the UAE was immense. As the oldest and most experienced of the squad with 79 caps, he filled the void left by Jedinak with poise and professionalism.

There’s no guarantee he’ll be there at the start of World Cup qualifiers later this year, but he said big-tournament experience would help a young squad immeasurably.

“I don’t think Australian football is in a bad place, it just wasn’t a good result tonight,” he said.

“There’s a lot of boys in this team who have a lot of football ahead of them. I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom at all.

“It’s extremely disappointing that we’ve gone out at this stage, but these are the types of lessons you can’t learn unless you experience them.

“You can’t tell someone how to handle the quarter-finals in a tournament until they’ve experienced it.”