Gulum, 23, last month pledged his allegiance to the Turkish national team after being called up by Crescent Stars manager Guus Hiddink for a friendly against the Netherlands.

But the Melbourne-born left-sided defender never took to the field for Turkey, meaning he could still potentially represent Australia.

And Gulum's name appeared in the Socceroos' provisional 50-man squad for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup which was accidentally released earlier this week, in a sign the defender is still in the picture for Osieck.

Osieck revealed to The Courier Mail he had met with Gulum recently while on a tour of Europe and reported the former Australia Under-23 international was "very positive" about representing the Socceroos.

"I met him a couple of weeks ago when I was in Turkey," Osieck said. "He was very positive and seemed keen to play, which was encouraging to hear.

"But you must remember this was just a provisional list. It was not one we were expecting to release.

"Really it was an internal list, but it does show how wide we have been scouting players. In fact, we have seen a lot more than the 50 on the list."