Scottish-born winger Martin Boyle appears set to pledge his international allegiance to Australia after being pencilled in the first Socceroos squad to be named by new coach Graham Arnold.
The 25-year-old, who plays for Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League, has been widely linked with the Socceroos in recent weeks and is now understood to be in line to make his debut in the October 15 friendly away to Kuwait.
Boyle is expected to be named on Friday morning in the squad for that match, which will be Arnold's first game in charge of the national team.
New Roo: Hibernian winger Martin Boyle is expected to be named in Graham Arnold’s first squad.
Boyle is a former Scotland youth international but is yet to be capped by his country of birth and remains eligible to represent Australia, where his father was born.
A teammate of Socceroos Jamie Maclaren and Mark Milligan, Boyle is understood to be eager to play international football with Australia and met with Arnold in the past fortnight.
The new Socceroos coach is on a whirlwind tour of Europe meeting with players and coaches, strengthening the relationships between Football Federation Australia and overseas clubs that house Australian players.
It's understood Arnold spent a considerable amount of time in Edinburgh, where he scouted Boyle and sought to secure his services for the Socceroos.
Arnold also met with Maclaren, Milligan and Hibs coach Neil Lennon as part of a tour that has taken him all over the UK, The Netherlands and Germany.
The relationship between the FFA's national team department and European clubs that own Australian players improved significantly in recent years due to the work of the Socceroos' strength and conditioning staff.
n his first months in charge of the Socceroos, Arnold has sought to raise that further by personally meeting with club coaches to avoid any potential conflict between club and country that has historically dogged Australian football.
More clubs are now sending weekly physical player data from training and games to the national team, which enables them to better assess and manage the Socceroos.
While Arnold has travelled extensively around Europe to build those relationships, conditioning and medical staff have travelled around the globe to assess other Australian players.
Medical staff have attended several players returning to fitness in Europe while newly appointed strength and conditioning coach, Andrew Clark is in East Asia working with players based in Japan and Korea.
On Friday, Arnold will announce his team for the Kuwait friendly, and it is not yet known whether key midfielder Jackson Irvine will be listed. The Hull City player suffered an achilles injury midweek and medical tests will determine whether he will be available for the Kuwait game.
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