The youngster captained the Young Socceroos to the ASEAN Under 19 Championships over the weekend - netting the crucial penalty in the final shoot-out against Korea - with the midfielder also part of both the Olyroo and Socceroo picture.

It has meant a lot of travelling for the youngster and van Egmond is mindful of keeping a young player as fresh as possible.

However, the coach believes skippering his country to success will serve Holland well in the coming months and years.

Van Egmond told au.fourfourtwo.com today: "Obviously it was great for James to lead the team to success over at the tournament. For me, it's great because it will certainly help him develop his leadership qualities.

"The media like to jump on the bandwagon of any up and coming sports star and James has obviously had that exposure.

"For me, the concern is not so much the second-season syndrome that people talk about, it's the heavy workload.

"James has been away with the Under 20s, the Under 23s and he's also been involved with the Socceroos.

"We have to be mindful of that and make sure that we as a club look after the player, take stock and make sure he gets the time (off the park) that he needs.

"Rest is an important part of recovery but also of injury prevention."

Van Egmond gave his players the weekend off to rest and believes it was simply common sense.

He said: "For us, the A-League break was a blessing. It gave a few of the injured boys more time out and hopefully they come back refreshed.

"I think as a coach you can be guilty of sometimes doing too much. It's all a question of balance.

"But we're back in today, have done a weights session and we're now looking forward to a field session."