Socceroos Riley McGree: The agony of missing the World Cup and a spot in the Premier League

- 5:30am Riley McGree had two dreams within his grasp: playing in the Premier League and representing the Socceroos at a second FIFA World Cup. Then, in one cruel moment,his hamstring snapped and both were snatched away.

For as long as he could, he tried to delude himself into thinking he had actually lost nothing, until the reality of his heartbreak was no longer possible to deny. "Probably that I was never going to go to the World Cup.

I almost convinced myself the World Cup wasn't on; the play-off final, there wasn't anything at stake in that game, that it just happened and it wasn't a thing. It was only really until the national anthem of the Turkey game.

I got pretty upset, and it hit me pretty hard." If there was a Ballon d'Or for misfortune, McGree would be on the shortlist. What happened to him in the final weeks of last season was almost too ridiculous to be true, but was perfectly in line with how his career has tracked since he starred at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Riley McGree returned for the Socceroos last month against Brazil. But none was as cruelly timed as the hamstring tear at Wembley Stadium in the Championship play-off final on May 23, a match he would not have played in were it not forthe spying scandal which engulfed English football.

It was the first indication that something was amiss, and the beginning of one of the biggest controversies in recent English football history, Spygate 2.0. The suspicious figure was an analyst sent to Boro's training grounds by Southampton manager Tonda Eckert, and revelations followed that this was not a one-off, but a pattern of behaviour.

The two-legged semi-final unfolded while an English Football League investigation was ongoing; Southampton prevailed 2-1 on aggregate, but the saga left a bad taste in Boro's mouths, and their manager Kim Hellberg accused them of cheating. McGree's season was over, yet there remained a chance that if Southampton could be kicked out of the play-offs, they could be reinstated.

Boro continued to train in that hope, but McGree, who otherwise would have flown to the Socceroos' pre-World Cup camp in Florida, was not optimistic. A few hours after the EFL's disciplinary committee hearing, he was sitting on his couch with his partner when the news filtered through via the team's group chat: Southampton were expelled from the play-offs and Boro would replace them in the final against Hull City.

I was shocked, in pure shock, and really taken aback by it - and then we had like three days to prepare, he said.