The former Brisbane Roar man, who turned 24 on Tuesday, had his pre-season at Dutch club FC Utrecht interrupted following a re-occurrence of a pelvic injury which he's battled ever since he was a teenager.

However, after undergoing a new core and leg strengthening program, Zullo believes he's on top of the problem and hopes to return to the Utrecht first team to build his case for a Socceroos recall ahead of the vital 2014 World Cup qualifier away to Iraq in Doha on October 16.

Zullo returned to full training a fortnight ago and played 45 minutes in the reserves last week followed by an hour in a first team friendly against Elinkwijk last Thursday.

“I feel fully fit for the first time in probably two years,” Zullo told au.fourfourtwo.com in Amsterdam after taking a holiday with his parents during the international break.

“I've been struggling with this ever since I came overseas where I would have little spells on the sidelines and never really solved the problem. It's been a troubling injury and if you don't get on top of it it can linger for a while.”

Zullo added the latest setback, which occurred in July, had allowed him to fully overcome the injury rather than have the problem suffer the burden of a heavy pre-season.

“With the strengthening program I've really come a long way with my leg and core strength,” he said. “It was something I knew I needed to work on and with training it's hard to focus on that.

“I'm happy I managed to do that at this early part of the season and hopefully I can work my way into the team.”

Australia coach Holger Osieck would likely greet Zullo's return to fitness and club football to boost his options at left back with David Carney struggling in the shock 2-1 defeat to Jordan on Tuesday.

Zullo admitted he's desperate to be playing games at Utrecht again to be part of the next Australia squad.

“That's the highlight of my season, to go away with the national team,” he said. “Of course I'm disappointed not to be there at the moment but it's a period where I need to focus on myself, getting games again and then hopefully if I can do that, I'll be back in the squad.”

Zullo knows the task of winning back his Utrecht first-team spot won't be easy, having previously fallen out of favour after Jan Wouters replaced Erwin Koeman as the club's boss in October last year.

However Zullo insisted his relationship with Wouters is “fine” and said he needed to work hard to win back his spot with a view to the Socceroos.

“Under Erwin I experienced a pretty fruitful period. I had a lot of oportunites with him, because he trusted me in a lot of positions; left wing, left midfield, left back to centre midfield,” he said.

“With Jan I've expressed I want to play left back because that's where I see myself playing with the national team. I just need to prove myself in training and gain his trust.”

Zullo was previously public on his frustration about his lack of game time and he repeated that stance.

“It can't be understated how frustrating it is to not be part of the first team when you're fully fit,” he said. “That's why it's important for me to get my body right before I come back and then have a crack.

“I definitely think I'm good enough to be part of the starting eleven. A lot of things have to fall into place before you get a starting eleven spot and having a bad pre-season is not one of them. I need a bit of luck, train well and play well, so we'll see how it goes.”

Meanwhile, Zullo praised his Australian team-mate Adam Sarota's hard work in pre-season having started all four Eredivisie games for Utrecht this term after reports he could leave the club in the off-season.

“He had to work very, very hard to get into the first team because that door was pretty much closed for him,” Zullo said.

“He worked extremely hard to give the coach no option but to play him because he was playing very well in pre-season.

“He's played well for us and it's earned him a call-up to the Socceroos and that's what I hope to do. Hopefully in the next few weeks here I can get back in and get a (Socceroos) recall.”