Kilkenny, part of last year's Olyroos squad, slammed coach Graham Arnold after the Olympic tournament and has not been part of the international picture since.

He believes his comments last year have now left him out in the cold until there is a change in the national team coaching staff which currently sees Arnold as assistant to head coach Pim Verbeek.

His Elland Road teammate Patrick Kisnorbo has been brought back into the international squad after some impressive displays for the Yorkshire club but Kilkenny isn't counting on a call any time soon.

"If the call comes along, then fair enough, but I think there's a lot of politics involved in the Australian set-up," he told the Yorkshire Evening Post.  "The assistant manager doesn't really like me, so I don't think he (Verbeek) will pick me."

The rift erupted after Kilkenny accused Arnold of lying to him and his club about his role with the Olyroos in Beijing.

"[Arnold] promised me certain things but went against his word," Kilkenny said last year. "My form has been up and down this season, partly because my confidence was knocked a bit when I went away to the Olympics in the summer and didn't play as often as I wanted."

Kilkenny said Arnold had misled Leeds United management about how Kilkenny would be used, and was furious at how his fitness dropped off during the Beijing campaign.

He added: "Pre-season is important, and the Australian manager told me we were going to have a really strong, hard pre-season, but the hardest I worked was when I came back to Leeds for a week.

"I worked harder in that week than I did for six to eight weeks with Graham Arnold, which is another thing that really annoyed me about him.

"I am a big confidence player, and hopefully I can get a run of form going because I feel I have been trying to catch up on my fitness since coming back from the Olympics."

Kilkenny has not featured in Australian national team selections since speaking out.

However team-mate Kisnorbo's performances have drawn plenty of praise from Leeds fans since arriving at the club and he is firmly in the mix for a place in Verbeek's final squad for South Africa next year.