The striker called a news conference earlier this month with the intention of announcing he would no longer play for the Socceroos to concentrate on his club commitments, but the 31-year-old had a change of heart after speaking with head coach Graham Arnold.

The 31-year-old is currently preparing for Australia's maiden AFC Asian Cup campaign after completing his free transfer from Middlesbrough to St James' Park this summer.

Speaking from the Socceroos' Singapore training camp, he said: "I have a lot on my plate at the moment with changing clubs, and that is how thinking about retirement came about.

"Newcastle is a big commitment - it is something you cannot go into half-heartedly, and it was hard to juggle the two.

"I realised in that day and a half I had to think about whether I wanted to be part of this Asian Cup team and part of Australia.

"I did not know whether to retire or not. I mentioned this to coach Graham Arnold and I said it looked like I would go towards retiring.

"Then, over the next two days, I had a good think about it and I just felt it meant too much for me to play for Australia, just to give it away like that."

Australia play a warm-up game against Singapore on Saturday before heading to Bangkok next week to take on Oman in their opening AFC Asian Cup match on July 8.

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