AUSTRALIA manager Graham Arnold insists Martin Boyle will be fit for the World Cup.
The Hibs winger was named in the Socceroos squad for Qatar despite the fact that he is currently sidelined with a knee injury he sustained against St Mirren on October 29.
Boyle has sat out the Leith side’s last two games and will not feature against Kilmarnock on Saturday in the final Premiership match before the World Cup break.
Boyle will be checked over by Australia medics when he gets to Qatar, with Hibs boss Lee Johnson having already said he will leave it up to the player to decide whether he can manage the pain from the problem.
Australia kick off their Group D campaign against France on November 22 and also face games against Tunisia and Denmark.
And Arnold believes the influential Boyle will be available for those matches.
He said: “Martin Boyle is one of those that we don’t have too many of and it’s a risk but the risk will work.
“Martin played a lot of football before he got this smallish injury and this time off that he’s had over the last ten days will freshen him up and he’ll come in.
“I know how his brain works and how he is as a person and a player and once he pulls those boots on and comes in he will be ready to go.
“I would not have brought him if I didn’t think from the first minute to the last Martin Boyle would not be at his best.
“Once he gets there, there will be no pain, it will be all about the mentality of getting ready for the game and getting out there and giving everything he’s got, I’m so confident in that.
“If there’s that doubt at all, in my view and the medical staffs’ view then we have that time to change it.”
