Farina Hopeful Viduka Will Play For Socceroos

National Coach Frank Farina is hopeful star striker Mark Viduka will play for the Socceroos against Turkey this month despite being ruled out of the final two club matches for Leeds United in the English Premier League.

National Coach Frank Farina is hopeful star striker Mark Viduka (pictured right) will play for the Socceroos against Turkey this month despite being ruled out of the final two club matches for Leeds United in the English Premier League.

After suffering a recurrence of a back and hamstring problem at training yesterday, Viduka was ruled out of Leeds' matches against Charlton Athletic tonight and Chelsea next week.

"This morning we received official correspondence from Leeds informing us that Mark Viduka will be released to play for the Socceroos this month.  At the same time they informed us that he has been ruled out of their last two matches due to injury," said Farina.

"We are in the process of contacting Mark to ascertain the full extent of the injury and until such time as we get the full diagnosis we are still planning to name him in the squad on Wednesday and are hopeful he will play."

"Our latest indications were that Mark would be available to play for the Socceroos against Turkey and we are hopeful he will arrive in Australia as planned where our medical staff can evaluate him."

The Socceroos play their first matches on home soil for two and half years when they face world cup semi finalist Turkey at Aussie Stadium in Sydney (Friday 21 May) and Telstra Dome in Melbourne (Monday 24 May).