Bunbury's Risdon bound for Socceroos

Perth Glory defender Josh Risdon is closing in on a Socceroos debut after earning a call-up to Ange Postecoglou’s 46-man provisional squad for next year’s Asian Cup.

The selection comes 12 months after the Bunbury star was exiled from A-League club Perth Glory after returning from a knee injury overweight and out of shape.

The 22-year-old used that incident as motivation over the offseason and has been an integral part of Glory’s dominant early campaign, with the club sitting atop the A-League ladder and preparing to contest the first ever FFA Cup grand final against Adelaide next week.

“I didn’t look after myself like I should have when I was injured and I came back a bit overweight and it took me a while to get back to full fitness, ” Risdon said.

“It showed when I was coming back and playing, I was struggling a fair bit.

"(Coach) Kenny Lowe left me out for a week against Wellington and sort of said I needed to get my weight down.

“He definitely gave me a kick but it was probably what I needed at the time and helped me prepare properly for the start of this season.”

Risdon shed 3kg and has his skinfolds down to the lowest level of his professional career.

His renewed focus on fitness has been apparent on the field with the fourth-year defender cementing his status as Glory’s preferred right full-back.

National selection has been on Risdon’s radar for some time after he trained with the senior squad under former Socceroos coach Holger Osieck in 2012.

“I had a camp with Holger about two years ago but this is my first proper call-up so I’m delighted and very honoured, ” he said.

“It was something I had set my mind on. Last season was disappointing for me so I wanted to get back to playing my best football and one of my goals was to make it into the provisional squad so it is good I have achieved that.”

Risdon will be joined in the extended squad by clubmates Mitch Nichols and Danny De Silva. The group will be trimmed down to 23 by the end of December.

“I’m just going to keep playing the way I’ve been playing, ” Risdon said.

“I don’t want to change my mentality because it seems to be working for me this season.

“I’ll just keep playing hard and hopefully if I put a couple more good performances in before the Asian Cup I can get into that final squad.”

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