Milligan was praised for his Asian Cup performances by team-mates, fans and football commentators. Even au.fourfourtwo.com readers voted Milligan as the runaway winner in our "best-performing Australian at the tournament" poll despite him playing in just two of the four matches.

“By no means am I anywhere near the standards I’ve set for myself or compared to some of the other guys in the Australian team,” he told au.fourfourtwo.com.

“The biggest thing about that tournament for me was taking a step closer to becoming a better player and the player I want to be in the future.”

He continued: “I guess I was happy with the way I played, but I think I’ve still got a long way to go. I’ve still got a lot to learn. Just watching some of the older guys at training and things like that shows me that I don’t think I’m complete as a player yet. I’ve got a lot of things to experience and a lot of things I want to fine-tune in my game before I can get to the level where they’re at.

“I know I am pretty hard on myself but when you talk about hitting my peak I think I’m well away from that.

“I’m very hard on myself and to be totally honest I play the whole game through my head lying in bed, before I go to sleep. I can’t help it, it happens every time.”

Pressed on what aspects he’d like to improve on, Milligan said: “Things like my positioning. I thought I was better at holding players up than I [maybe] am. When I was a bit younger I had a tendency to get a little over-keen at times. I’d jump into tackles when I should maybe have stayed up. It’s also things like playing the right ball at the right time and knowing when to put your foot on it to slow the game down, especially in that position at the back. It’s decision making and knowing exactly when to do things.”