Socceroos midfielder Mile Jedinak reveals his desire to lead Australia at the World Cup in Brazil

STILL gushing with pride after wearing the Socceroos captain’s armband for the first time, Mile Jedinak has revealed his desire to lead the side at the World Cup.

STILL gushing with pride after wearing the Socceroos captain’s armband for the first time, midfielder Mile Jedinak has revealed his desire to lead the side at the World Cup.

And Jedinak declared Crystal Palace’s relegation battle scars will ensure it defies the odds to secure survival in the Premier League relegation dogfight.

Jedinak, who has skippered English Premier League side Crystal Palace for the past 18 months, led Australia in the 4-3 loss to Ecuador in London a fortnight ago after Lucas Neill was left out of the squad.

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Mindful of Neill’s late bid for Brazil after signing a loan deal with Watford, Jedinak said he would be thrilled to lead the Socceroos, starting with the May 26 farewell match against South Africa in Sydney.

“Walking the team out (against Ecuador) was the proudest moment of my ­career. It’s a responsibility given to you for a reason and knowing what that means is really special,’’ Jedinak said.

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“Growing up, you look up to captains and you think to yourself: ‘Strong people, strong characters.’ And it means someone has a lot of faith in you.

“I don’t like to get ahead of myself and I won’t get ahead of myself, but if called upon to do that job, then you do it.

“We all know the situation. It would be stupid for me to say I don’t want to do it again.

“You take the experiences from all the captains — Lucas, Harry Kewell was captain once. Having a taste of it and knowing what it entails ... it’s something you don’t take lightly.’’

News_Image_File: Jedinak faces a Premier League relegation battle with Crystal Palace.

Palace, which plays at Newcastle United on Sunday morning, sits one spot and three points above the relegation zone occupied by Sunderland, Cardiff and Fulham.

“Then having the manager (Tony Pulis) with the experience of staying up, for me it’s looking positive.’’

Jedinak, 29, said Palace’s team unity and experience of avoiding relegation — it was in danger of sliding to League One two years in a row before securing promotion — would be crucial with nine games left.

“The reason is self-belief. I believe in my teammates and what we’re doing,’’ he said.

“On paper we should’ve already been down. We were tipped to be last.

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“I’ve seen enough this season and seen what we’re capable of. There’s a long way to go, but knowing what we went through at the start of the season (nine losses in the first 10 games) and knowing the characters in our team ... we’ve been in and around relegation, it’s not new to us, compared to some of the teams dragged into it now.

“We lost our first four games of last season but, after being bottom, we developed this team spirit and we didn’t want to let each other down and it remains.

“You’ve got to move forward with positivity because we showed some really good football in the first half and that was very encouraging,’’ he said.

“If that’s what we’re capable of after one session with a relatively inexperienced squad, then it gets you excited for the future.’’