Martin Boyle has been ruled out of Australia’s World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh with ‘knee swelling’.

Instead of joining his international team-mates in Melbourne for Thursday's clash, the Hibs winger remained in Scotland this week, and will instead fly straight to Kuwait in preparation for the Socceroos’ following fixture against Palestine. Australia manager Graham Arnold revealed the step has been taken as a precaution following consultation with Nick Montgomery and medical staff at Easter Road, detailing how the swelling had emerged around the same knee upon which Boyle had anterior cruciate ligament surgery last year.

Montgomery left Boyle on the bench for last midweek’s Premiership draw with St Mirren, citing a knee issue, but he returned to the starting side with a standout performance in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Kilmarnock. The 30-year-old was then due to join fellow Hibee Lewis Miller in heading to the Australia camp, but there was concern the long-haul flight would aggravate the swelling, and all parties agreed the safest course of action was to stay at HTC.

“He pulled up well, but after speaking to the medical staff from his club, they were a little bit concerned that he wouldn’t (be able to) fly out to Australia,” said Arnold. “It was just mainly down to the fact that it was on the knee that had the ACL, the swelling, and the long flight that could have made his knee swell up again. The best thing to do was to leave him over in Scotland. He trained for four days with Hibs, and he’ll join us as soon as we get across to Kuwait.”

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Arnold added that he was ‘100 per cent’ sure that Boyle would be fit to face Palestine next Wednesday. Significant caution appears to have been exercised given Boyle’s arduous recovery from the aforementioned ACL tear, one that ensured he played no part in Australia’s historic World Cup campaign in Qatar at the end of last year. Boyle has been one of Montgomery’s most used players, but the manager has insisted he will never take chances with his fitness.

“Martin is a special player and we have to protect him,” Montgomery said after the win over Killie. “Coming off in the semi-final he took a little knock. We can’t take risks on a player of Martin’s stature at the club and it was the right decision to leave him on the bench at St Mirren. It freshened him up and he has had a disallowed goal, possibly penalty call and a couple at the end where he just lost his footing. Martin is a big player for us and it’s important that we don’t take risks when it’s not necessary.”