{"id":228897,"date":"2026-02-16T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/socceroos-dealt-big-world-cup-blow-as-key-cogs-nasty-injury-fears-confirmed\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:32:00","slug":"socceroos-dealt-big-world-cup-blow-as-key-cogs-nasty-injury-fears-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/socceroos-dealt-big-world-cup-blow-as-key-cogs-nasty-injury-fears-confirmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos dealt big World Cup blow as key cog\u2019s nasty injury fears confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australia\u2019s Lewis Miller has been dealt a crushing blow with the defender to miss this year\u2019s World Cup with an Achilles injury.<\/p>\n

Football Australia confirmed the news on Tuesday morning after Miller was stretchered off in the second half of Blackburn Rovers\u2019 3-1 win at QPR in the Championship on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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The 25-year-old has since undergone surgery, ending his chances of appearing for the Socceroos in Canada and the United States later this year.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s absence is a significant blow to Tony Popovic\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

The right-back played a pivotal part in the World Cup qualifying campaign, scoring two goals.<\/p>\n

Since making his international debut against England at Wembley Stadium in 2023, Miller has earned 20 Socceroos caps including featuring in the national team\u2019s last 14 matches and starting in 11 of them.<\/p>\n

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Socceroos select US World Cup base | 01:12<\/p>\n

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The Sydneysider, who emerged from the Central Coast Mariners, has also been in impressive form for Blackburn.<\/p>\n

Miller has featured 31 times this season for the 19th-placed Rovers across all competitions, including 25 starts.<\/p>\n

He also has scored two goals and provided two assists.<\/p>\n

New Blackburn boss Michael O\u2019Neill was fearing bad news, but hoping for the best post-match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does look like a serious injury and he\u2019s in a boot, so we can only wish that it\u2019s not as serious as it looks,\u201d O\u2019Neill told the club\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in a lot of pain and had to be stretchered off despite nobody being near him. It looks like an Achilles situation and we hope that there\u2019s good news and it\u2019s not as severe as maybe we fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller is expected to face roughly nine months on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australia international will receive the full care and support of everyone at the club throughout his rehabilitation, and everyone at Rovers wishes him a full and speedy recovery,\u201d Blackburn said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all with you, Lewis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Lewis Miller has been dealt a crushing blow with the defender to miss this year\u2019s World Cup with an Achilles injury. Football Australia confirmed the news on Tuesday morning after Miller was stretchered off in the second half of Blackburn Rovers\u2019 3-1 win at QPR in the Championship on Sunday. \ufeffGet all the latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[1800,1641,83,1736,1808,2064,3148,6753,1567,85,1429,149,1425,4143,5035,42754,20075,69940,1533,1809,1427,12754,1728,369,11209,69941,69939,12783,1792,1579,69938],"class_list":{"0":"post-228897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-central-coast-mariners","15":"tag-crushing-blow","16":"tag-eastern-asia","17":"tag-england","18":"tag-europe","19":"tag-football-news","20":"tag-getty-images-inc","21":"tag-james-worsfold","22":"tag-japan","23":"tag-key-cog","24":"tag-lewis-miller","25":"tag-nasty-injury-fears","26":"tag-north-america","27":"tag-northern-america","28":"tag-northern-europe","29":"tag-norwich-city-football-club","30":"tag-oceania","31":"tag-perth","32":"tag-qualifying-campaign","33":"tag-scoring-runfootball","34":"tag-squad-updates","35":"tag-tony-popovic","36":"tag-united-states-of-america","37":"tag-western-australia","38":"tag-world-cup-basefootball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}