Battered but not beaten, D'Agostino eyes World Cup
To say that Nick D’Agostino has had to overcome a harrowing run of injuries almost feels like an understatement. But now he's back healthy, back in the Socceroos, and eyeing his dream of a World Cup.
MONTREAL, Canada – To say that Nick D’Agostino has had to overcome a harrowing run of injuries, testing not just his physical but also mental resilience, almost feels like an understatement. But Tony Popovic has always believed in the striker’s talent, it’s why he’s been so willing over the years to deliver him some home truths and tough love, and now he’s desperate to prove to the Socceroo boss he has what it takes to play at a World Cup.
Now 27, D’Agostino made his first move to Europe midway through the 2022-23 A-League Men season, moving from then-Popovic-coached Melbourne Victory to Norwegian powers Viking FK and signing a four-year deal. After playing for then-Socceroo boss Graham Arnold at the Tokyo Olympics and earning his first two senior international appearances the year prior, it was a big moment for the Queenslander, a chance for him to establish himself in Europe and forge ahead with an international career in a position of need.
But then, after the highs of that initial promise, things started to go wrong. 21 appearances into his first season in Norway, with three goals and six assists to his name, and just days after returning from his first Socceroo appearance in over a year, a benign sidestep in training put him on the shelf for months. “The meniscus in the knee just blew, pretty much fully ruptured,” D’Agostino recalled to JDL Media. “Straight in for surgery, the knee was locked straight in. I asked them to try and repair it, but once they went in, they just said no. It was a mess. It just completely blew. Pretty much ended up getting about half of it taken out.”
Returning the following season, he logged consistent football amidst Vikings’ strong start to the 2024 campaign as he worked his way back to form and fitness – the Norwegian top flight operates on a calendar basis – only for what he initially dismissed as shin splints to emerge as something quite serious. “Turns out I had a pretty bad stress fracture and stress reaction in the tibia in my right leg. So that was another long-term sort of thing that had to come back from.”
Returning for the final six weeks of that season, the sale of Lars-Jørgen Salvesen to Derby County opened the door for D’Agostino to press his claim on the starting striker role in 2025, but, just weeks in, disaster would strike once again. “Third game in, I came off the bench and went to do a sort of clearance over my head from a wide free kick; my stud got stuck in the ground and I fell back onto myself,” he recalled. “Ruptured the syndesmosis and deltoid ligament in my left ankle. So there’s another surgery.”
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Flash forward to the present, though, and D’Agostino says his body is feeling great. Sitting at a table in the Socceroos’ Montreal accommodations after being called into the side for October friendlies against Canada and the United States, he’s exactly where he wants to be.
“It’s been pretty tough,” he reflects. “But I’m taking care of myself mentally and physically now, and trying to do everything I possibly can to get back into this team and just back around the boys.
“It’s tough. You need people around you who can help you. I had personal problems off the field as well, splitting up with a long-term partner at that time as well. It’s difficult, but I’m speaking to sports psychologists and that sort of stuff as well, getting through it. They’ve been a massive help as well.
“When you’re injured and you’re not actually playing, you’re not around the team as much and in the gym every day, it’s just about setting your sights on a goal to try and achieve, that you know you can get back to.
“It’s obviously difficult. You have a lot of dark days. That’s for sure. A lot of people think professional sport, and football specifically, is easy, but there are a lot of times and a lot of moments that they don’t see in the background that are quite difficult to get us to the easy moments. But speaking of family every day and that sort of stuff helps. And having mates and teammates around you to support you. Just a good group of people that you can sort of fall back on to have that chat with if needed.”
Called up as part of Popovic’s effort to cast his eyes across the breadth of his options for next year’s World Cup, D’Agostino is back in the national team for the first time since that 2023 game against Mexico, arriving after he returned to action for Viking in September and logged four straight games, netting in a draw with KFUM in his first game back.
The striker’s history with Popovic is a long one, first linking up with the coach at Perth Glory during the 2019/20 season. The gaffer delivered what was called a “public roasting” of the attacker during that stretch, lambasting him for his fitness levels following the league’s COVID-enforced shutdown and saying he’d struggle to get a game.
Nonetheless, Popovic moved to sign D’Agostino when he landed the Victory job in 2021/22, guiding him to 17 goals in 42 appearances in all competitions and praising his development when he landed at Viking in January of 2023.
“I’ve had the hair dryer treatment a few times,” the attacker grinned. “But I love that. I’d prefer getting yelled at and shouted at, then not getting spoken to at all.
“I’ve got a great relationship with him. We had time together in Perth, and his way of helping me has helped my career a lot.
“Looking after your body and all the little details that you need to do that you can’t just do the night before a game, it’s all year round. So there are no off days. Which has been massive for me personally, it gives you just a more professional outlook on what it takes to be at your very best.
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“There’s lots of things that I’ve taken from him and my time with him in my career so far. Very happy to be back working with him and hopefully I can just get on that park and score some goals to make him a bit happy.”
D’Agostino is one of three nines called up by Popovic for the October international window, joining Mitch Duke and Mohamed Toure as options to lead the line. Both D’Agostino and Touré arrived at camp later than Duke, potentially giving the J1 League-based veteran a leg up in starting against Canada on Friday night. But both trained fully on Wednesday and should, at minimum, be fully up to speed for next week’s game with the USMNT.
Also present in camp is Martin Boyle, who played centrally during the September international window, while the likes of Noah Botic, Adam Taggart, Brandon Borrello, Kusini Yengi, and Apostolos Stamatelopoulos have all received call-ups across the past year.
In other words, there’s been plenty of coming and going at the starting striker role with nobody able to stake a real, genuine claim. Which, in D’Agostino’s eyes, gives him a new goal to work towards.
“We’ve had it for a few years now, umming and awwing on that position,” he admitted. “But now I just want to make it mine, to be honest.
“With the World Cup, you’ve heard it before, every kid dreams of it. I missed out on the last one, which was tough to swallow. But now it’s all eyes forward and trying to make sure I do everything right to get my body and mind to put myself into that position to cement that sort of spot.
“There’s a lot of competition. I got a lot of competition at club too, so it kind of helps in a way that I’m just constantly fighting for my spot and for minutes.”
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