Australia call-up adds to hero's goal joy

By Bill Anderson

Leicester City's goal hero Patrick Kisnorbo is back in from the cold as far as his Australian international future is concerned.

A couple of years ago, when at Hearts, he turned down a place in the squad for the Olympic Games, preferring to cement his future at Tynecastle rather than just be one of the numbers in his country's set-up.

Little wonder he was not considered again but this week he is back in the picture, being named in the Socceroos squad for their game in Kuwait next week.

City's 19-year-old midfielder James Wesolowski has also been called up, with goalkeeper Paul Henderson on stand-by.

Kisnorbo celebrated his comeback in style, with the winning goal against Southend on Saturday. He said: "I pulled out before because I had just joined Hearts and it seemed more important for me to carve out my career over here.

"That meant I have not been considered for the past two years but I am delighted to be back.

"It will be a chance to work with the best Australian players from some of the top clubs in Europe so I think it will be a fantastic opportunity for both of us. For James, it is great for the kid, he has had a lot to contend with and this is a big opportunity for him."

Kisnorbo's main delight, though, was City grabbing another win, and another defensive fillip of a clean sheet.

But his goal was also a highlight. He said: "We work on set-pieces a lot and it proved again that it works, another good delivery from Danny Tiatto and I got on the end of it. As long as the team win and the fans are happy, that is my job.

"They played some good football and maybe we proved we are stronger than we were last season and can grind out results.

"Hopefully this is going to be the real City but there is still a lot to be done. We can't get carried away with it so we will do a lot of work on the training ground building up for the next one."