It was announced Monday Milligan would return to Victory for his second stint at the club on a one-year marquee deal after spending time at UAE side Baniyas Club.

It was reported the Socceroo had links to Bolton Wanderers, Burton Albion and Birmingham City, which ultimately fell through in a situation which Milligan describes was not up to him.

Coach Kevin Muscat has already brought back Kosta Barbarouses for his second stint and re-signed James Troisi when it looked like he would get away.

Milligan was asked if it was tough after finding out he would not be playing in England, Muscat leaped in joking “not for me”.

“From our perspective, we’ve profited from that because no doubt Mark wanted to explore all the opportunities and we’re the first to admit his option was to try and stay away, particularly in Europe,” Muscat said on Monday.

“We’re very fortunate from the way the cards have landed, having said that now, we’re pretty excited about the squad we’re putting together with the bodies we’ve been able to re-sign and sign for the coming season.”

Milligan also said the national team was a big contributing factor with the World Cup in Russia coming next year and is still very much in Ange Postecoglou’s plans.

The 31-year-old also said the amount games, including AFC Asian Champions League next year, would be beneficial for him.

Milligan said when he became a free-agent, he had no premediated plans of joining Victory and that it “just worked out”.

“I left myself open to whatever came, it was something I hadn’t been able to do since I was 20-years-old,” he said.

“When England came up, it was something I needed to explore I let them do their thing, there were a couple of teams over there that looked into it and to be honest I was away on holidays and I was just seeing that happened.

“As it turned out, the visa situation wasn’t possible for me to play over there which was out of my hands. In the end it wasn’t my decision.

“At first I wanted to see what was what being a free agent and exploring opportunities that came my way.

“Over the last few days when my decision was made that I’d be coming back to Australia. Once I spoke to Musky the choice was easy.”

Victory have an upcoming friendly against Bentleigh Greens on Wednesday night and then fly up to Perry Park to take on Brisbane Roar in the FFA Cup Round of 32 the following week.

Muscat said he hadn’t decided just yet whether Milligan would take part in Brisbane.