{"id":592447,"date":"2026-04-08T01:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T01:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592447\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T01:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T01:54:09","slug":"mitch-duke-to-retire-from-socceroos-after-fifa-world-cup-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592447\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch Duke to retire from Socceroos after FIFA World Cup bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Socceroos veteran Mitch Duke has his way, he will retire after playing at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

But the 35-year-old Duke will call time on his international career regardless of whether he makes Tony Popovic’s squad and pulls off his swansong.<\/p>\n

The 50-cap Socceroo has not played for the national team since October, 2025 \u2014 last featuring as a substitute in friendlies against Canada and the US.<\/p>\n

Will Socceroos’ experimentation pay off at World Cup?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Socceroos are done with experimenting, but now need to find the winning formula with the World Cup quickly approaching.<\/p>\n

Duke, who played at the 2022 tournament, had sealed Australia’s sixth consecutive World Cup finals appearance after scoring the match-winner in the 1-0 qualification win over Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he was forced to watch the Socceroos’ most recent games \u2014 send-off friendlies against Cameroon and Curacao \u2014 from the stands after being formally presented with cap No.559.<\/p>\n

Duke responded the following week by scoring a double and notching an assist to fire Macarthur to a 3-2 win over A-League Men leaders Newcastle.<\/p>\n

And with the Socceroos to reconvene in May against Mexico, Duke knows he needs to keep pushing across the Bulls’ final three regular-season matches.<\/p>\n

“And if I do that, I’ll give myself the best chance because for me, I don’t want to die wondering,” Duke told AAP.<\/p>\n

“This is my last chance. I’m going to retire from the national team after this World Cup tournament, because it’s time to finally open up space for the next generation.<\/p>\n

“Of course, there’s an Asian Cup around the corner, but to finish after a World Cup \u2014 if I get selected, of course \u2014 will be the icing on the cake of an international career that I can look back and be proud of.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Duke will have Mohamed Toure to outperform after the young Norwich City striker made a successful return to club football from an injury.<\/p>\n

Toure suffered a groin injury in late February, which ruled him out of Australia’s friendlies in March.<\/p>\n

Explosive winger Nestory Irankunda is also raising the stakes in attack after pulling off a five-minute double in Australia’s 5-1 win over Cura\u00e7ao.<\/p>\n

“I love that I’m finally getting pushed out to the side, even though they’re my competition,” Duke said.<\/p>\n

“I can still keep up. I can still give these young ones a run for their money.<\/p>\n

“For me, if I can challenge Mo Toure to keep at his best as well and keep him on his toes, then I’m happy to do that.<\/p>\n

“I know we’re very different players in that way, but we can still bounce off each other and make it a fight for that striker spot.”<\/p>\n

Duke, who has scored 13 goals for Australia, feels he is at the peak of his powers after a change in diet \u2014 which included cutting down on sugar and caffeine \u2014 and training regimes.<\/p>\n

“I know that he (Popovic) still has that belief in me and knows that I can do a job still at that level,” Duke said.<\/p>\n

“He will give me a chance if no one else is outperforming me.<\/p>\n

“If I don’t (get selected), I can at least hold my head high and be like, ‘You know what? I gave it everything’.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Socceroos veteran Mitch Duke has his way, he will retire after playing at the World Cup. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5844,64,63,16135,596,217539,13198,42150,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-592447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abc-sport","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fifa-world-cup","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-mitch-duke","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-socceroos","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}