Cahill was selected in the Socceroos 23-man squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Iran and UAE.

The all-time leading Socceroos goal scorer was on the bench for City’s 3-2 win over Central Coast Mariners a fortnight ago but Valkanis left him on the sideline.

Valkanis said Cahill trained with a high level of intensity after a refreshing weekend off in the split round and was ready to go in both club and country colours.

“Tim’s in a good spot physically especially last week with a spike in the load we had in our training all week in preparation for finals football,” Valkanis said.

“He completed the whole week, played a total of 120 minutes of 11 v 11. He’s fine and ready to go.

“Up until now we’ve managed Tim… for Tim and how we can get the best out of him. He started off the season playing a lot of games and he went through some injury troubles where we had to nurse him through training and playing time and we’ve had to do the right thing by him.”

Valkanis said Cahill’s involvement for City was all premeditated to suit his condition.

City play Newcastle Jets on Saturday night and Michael Jakobsen is still ruled out with a calf injury while Fernando Brandan is out for the season after accumulating an ACL injury last week.

“It was all planned out, which game he was going to play, miss out on and might have to come on,” he said.

“The last game for example against Sydney FC, the first half I thought we were fantastic. If not for the red card and the game to change the way it did, Timmy probably would have stayed on.

“But having to find another player that’s going to do the running in the midfield, I’m not going to make Timmy harass and press.

“For him he’s in good nick, he’s ready for this game, excited about the national team and we’re looking forward to what he can bring to the team and national team in the future.