One of the leading candidates to captain the Caltex Socceroos at the Confederations Cup has put any thoughts of the armband to one side.
With regular skipper Mile Jedinak ruled out with a groin injury, fellow midfielder Mark Milligan is a strong contender to lead Australia in Tuesday morning’s Confederations Cup opener against Germany.
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Nothing has been discussed,” Milligan told reporters in Sochi.
“Obviously from our point of view [Mile] is a loss but the way this squad has been prepared over the last couple of years is for reasons like this.
“Whoever steps in knows what’s expected and will be ready to go.
“It’s a great privilege for whoever gets that but that’s not what’s on my mind.
“I just want to prepare well so if called upon to play I’m able to help us get off to a good start.”
The Germans have sent a young side to Russia for the Confederations Cup, but Milligan has no doubt they’ll still be a formidable opponent.
“Germany have a lot of very good structures in place,” he said.
“They’re very set in their ways in the way they go about a match so the personalities are a little bit secondary to the way they want to do things.
“We have no doubt they’ll be very strong but we’re very excited about playing them.
“They’re a very good nation and even though they’ve had a few changes to their personnel, we expect the same sort of discipline and game plan from them.”
As far as the wider goals of the squad are concerned, Milligan wants to see a continuation of the progress the side has made in the last two and half years.
“It’s another chance for us to take a leap forward in showing everyone the way we play football and go about our game,” he said.
“We want to go as deep into this tournament as possible.
“Around the group there’s a lot of confidence and belief in what we do.
“We want to start showing and proving everybody should jump on because the next year, starting now, will be very exciting,” he added.