The promising striker fought his way back into the United side at the tail end of last season, only to suffer a season-ending shoulder injury while winning a crucial penalty against Perth Glory in round 26.

It meant that Mebrahtu was once again sidelined, but rather than dwell on his misfortune, the 20-year-old regarded the downtime as his end of season break and is now firing on all cylinders.

“After I got injured against Perth Glory I missed over three solid weeks of training because I couldn’t do anything at all,” Mebrahtu said.

“I’ve basically treated that period as my break and I started training again well before this camp. Fitness-wise, this camp will take me to the next level and I want to maintain that right up until the new season starts.

“I’m not looking to have another rest or ease off; I just want to keep going now and make sure I’m in the best possible shape.

“Sure, it means that pre-season has basically started a little earlier for me, but I feel fresh, I’m loving it here at this camp and I’m really looking forward to everything the new season brings.”

Blessed with pace, skill and flair, Mebrahtu’s career is tipped to flourish in the coming years, but the grounded youngster, who is a devout Christian, is taking nothing for granted as he looks to make his presence felt in front of the national team coaches. 

“I’ve managed to come a long way in a short time in my football career and I’m very thankful to God for this opportunity,” he said.

“Being called up to a training camp with the Australian national team is a great honour and I give thanks to God and Jesus Christ every day – my faith is very important to me.

“This is a new experience for me and I’m really enjoying it so far. We had our first training session on Monday afternoon, then on Tuesday we had gym in the morning and another training session in the afternoon.

“After training there is a recovery session and in between there are appointments with the physio, so it’s pretty full on. We’ve had a couple of collective meetings with the coaches already and I think there will be individual meetings for each player later in the week.”

Joining Mebrahtu at the AIS-based camp are United teammates Tahj Minniecon, Ben Halloran and new signing Jake Barker-Daish. Minniecon, a regular Australian international at youth level, is now only eligible for the Qantas Olyroos and will be pushing hard for selection in June when Australia take on Yemen over two legs in the second round of Asian qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympics

According to Mebrahtu, Minniecon, Halloran and Barker-Daish are all performing in training and doing their chances of selection no harm.

“Tahj, Ben and Jake are all doing really well. We’ve trained together here and they all looked sharp. It’s been a good opportunity to get to know Jake a bit better too,” he said.

“There will probably be a couple more camps before the games against Yemen and hopefully we will all be selected again.

“There are a lot of talented players here and it makes you realise how many good young players there are in Australia. You can see their quality and as I've said, it’s an honour to be invited along.

“It’s very motivating to be around camps like this and it makes you want to excel even more. In football you can’t stand still; you have to keep trying to improve and striving to get better or reach higher levels. The most important thing is to try to be the best you can be.”