Aussie Good Out Of World Cup

Newcastle United defender Curtis Good has been ruled out of this summer's World Cup through injury.

The 21-year-old was named in Australia's provisional 30-man squad earlier this month but has failed to recover from a hip injury in time to make the final cut.

Good was on loan at Dundee United when he won his first Socceroos cap in March, but injury struck during that game and the youngster has not kicked a ball in anger since.

Despite his problem, national team manager Ange Postecoglou gave Good every chance of making the finals in Brazil, but the full-back ran out ot time.

"I'm gutted,'' Good told Australian newspaper the Herald Sun.

"Being with the boys, having a taste of it and knowing you're that close makes it even harder.'

"I knew this camp was the last shot. I had an injection and it felt good. I felt confident and usually for those injuries the injection works.

"The plan was to get through Friday's session, join in passing drills the next day and hopefully be in full training Sunday and play the game on 2nd June in Brazil.

"To be honest it was all going fine and I had no ill-feeling in the hip. But one movement at training, it was a change of direction drill, and as soon as I did that I knew that feeling and knew it hadn't healed.'

Postecoglou added: "With Curtis, we wanted to give him every chance.

"To his credit, he worked really had and did everything the medical people wanted him to. But we had a timeline in our heads and tested him out a few days ago, and he just couldn't get back up to where we wanted it to be."