Socceroos World Cup hopefuls put through paces at secret camp at Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium

ANGE Postecoglou’s true No. 10 Tom Rogic headlined a secret FIFA World Cup mini Socceroos camp at Coopers Stadium on Friday.

Tom Rogic (left) and Osama Malik train in Adelaide. Picture: Sarah Reed

ANGE Postecoglou’s true No. 10 Tom Rogic headlined a secret FIFA World Cup mini Socceroos camp at Coopers Stadium on Friday.

The Celtic attacking midfielder, on loan to Melbourne Victory for this recent A-League season, was part of Socceroos assistant coach Aurelio Vidmar’s pre-World Cup preparatory squad.

Vidmar, a Socceroos and Adelaide City legend and former Adelaide United coach, greeted The Advertiser outside the Hindmarsh stadium with a chirpy “good morning” after FFA officials declined requests for interviews.

Rogic, 21, Adelaide United’s goalkeeper of the year and 2010 World Cup squad member Eugene Galekovic, 32, Reds utility Osama Malik, 23, Newcastle Jets trio, golden boot Adam Taggart, 20, Josh Brillante, 21, and former Reds No. 2 gloveman Mark Birighitti, 23, were all present in camp.

Vidmar had his mini squad working up a sweat first in the Coopers Stadium gym. The A-Leaguers then ventured on to a sodden Coopers Stadium pitch for a training session.

Vidmar’s Socceroos staff included lauded physio Les Gelis, goalkeeper coach Tony Franken and new national teams football analyst Peter Cklamovski.

But Adelaide-based Andrew Young, a former Fulham United five-star physio who was named as the Socceroos’ sports scientist and football conditioning coach in February, wasn’t spotted at the session yesterday.

Socceroos assistant Aurelia Vidmar takes the training session. Picture: Sarah Reed

The Socceroos’ mini World Cup preparation camp has been based in Adelaide since the start of the week with the small group training in the mornings.

They will continue to train on the pristine Coopers Stadium turf until Tuesday before Postecoglou names a preliminary squad of 30 players on Wednesday.

Rogic and Galekovic are certainties for Brazil while the other four A-League young guns present at the secret session will make the preliminary squad of 30 named next week.

Although they the may not survive the next Socceroos World Cup cut, they are in line for Asian Cup duty on home soil in January.

The final squad of 30 will then gather in Gosford after the announcement for the final World Cup countdown before the squad is later reduced to 27 players.

The Socceroos will train at Central Coast Stadium from May 18 after former Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna, current mayor of the city of Gosford, brokered a deal to host the entire national team.

The 27 players will all board flights for Brazil after the Socceroos face South Africa in the farewell clash at ANZ Stadium on May 26.

Brisbane Roar’s double winning coach Mike Mulvey and assistant Luciano Trani have also been charged with coaching World Cup certainties Matt McKay and Ivan Franjic.

It’s believed Victory boss Kevin Muscat has been training Socceroos-in-waiting, Adelaide-born James Troisi and Mark Milligan in Melbourne.