Exiled ex-Socceroo Lucas Neill seen in Aussie cricket’s inner circle

Former Socceroos captain Lucas Neill has added to the movie star sightings across the touring males’s Ashes aspect in England, being noticed with Check captain Pat Cummins after day 5 at Outdated Trafford.

In a week that saw recently axed Gold Coast Suns coach Stuart Dew link up with the side in an unknown help capability, Neill’s look provides additional intrigue to the dynamic being constructed across the aspect by head coach Andrew McDonald and captain Pat Cummins.

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The previous centre-back holds the excellence of being essentially the most capped captain within the historical past of the Socceroos, having made 96 senior appearances for Australia throughout a adorned profession.

He performed over 150 video games for English heavyweight golf equipment Millwall and Blackburn Rovers, in addition to stints at West Ham United, Everton and Galatasaray.

He represented Australia on the well-known 2006 FIFA World Cup the place the Socceroos’ “Golden Era” took the nation to the Spherical of 16, solely dropping to Italy in a controversial 1-0 loss that Neill was on the centre of.

Neill’s sort out of Fabio Grosso within the penalty space was adjudged a foul, regardless of the looks of Grosso staging a dive, giving the Italians a late penalty which might knock Australia out of the World Cup.

Since his time with the nationwide aspect led to 2014 underneath present Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou, Neill has notably shied away from any connection to the Socceroos since.

Having severed ties with the nation’s soccer fraternity, Neill was declared bankrupt within the UK in 2016, the place he lives together with his spouse and two children in Lancashire, after a string of failed investments.

Former Socceroo and Fox Sports activities analyst Robbie Slater in 2016 advised of how Neill had hid from him in a buying centre encounter in Sydney’s north, having lower out many of the Australian footballing fraternity after the heartbreak of being dropped.

“I’ve identified Lucas for 20 years,” Slater stated.

“I’ve been on the panel of Lucas Neill Scholarship and even offered it. But like everybody, I hadn’t seen him in such a very long time.

“I simply needed to see how he was going, as you do. For no matter purpose, he determined to cover away. But it surely’s a well-recognized story. I’ve since heard he gained’t speak to anybody outdoors his closest circle. I’m actually unhappy for him that that is the place he’s wound up.”

Neill has since made sporadic public appearances, most just lately on the unveiling of present Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson at Australia Home in 2020.

Neill is not any stranger to cricket nonetheless, teaching son Marcus’ junior cricket staff at native membership Lowerhouse, and his look has turn into a part of an ongoing sequence of excessive profile sporting appearances across the nationwide aspect this Ashes sequence, with ex-Geelong star Joel Selwood and Formulation One driver Oscar Piastri additionally being seen across the aspect.