The skilful Crystal Palace star has been training with Sydney FC since returning from England after his commitments in the Championship. Carle hadn't played for six weeks before getting game time against Bahrain on Wednesday night.

For a player who has admitted he needs to tick over in the off-season, it's clearly been a factor in keeping Carle, capped eight times for the national team, in the mind of the national team boss Pim Verbeek.

Carle came on after 82 minutes and gave a good account of himself in the short time he was on the park.

"I've been working really hard this last few weeks and I'm very happy I got some game time," he said after the game. "There's still a lot of hard work ahead of me. There are a lot of good players in the team. And it's still a long way away.

"But I'm really glad I got some game time. I haven't played for Australia in a long time and so I'm really happy about that."

Verbeek said after the game Carle and some of the other new names in the Socceroo squad had done themselves proud.

"The boys who came in, they showed themselves," said Verbeek after the game."The more players available it's better for the Socceroos and Australian football.

Carle, 27, last played for the national team in late 2007.

"If I work hard, fingers crossed I'll get some more game time," he added. "I thought I did okay tonight. It was only ten minutes but it's a start. Every little bit helps."

Luke Wilkshire and Mark Milligan will return to their clubs over the next few days to rejoin their respective clubs Dinamo Moscow and Shanghai Shenhua.

Verbeek added that he was unlikely to use players against Japan who were walking the yellow card tightrope.