CLICK HERE TO SEE HEART AND SASA TRAIN

The Socceroo, ACL winner and 2010 Asian Player of the Year is ticking over by training with Melbourne Heart over the Christmas period.

The move was made possible by his friendship with Heart assistant coach Ante Milicic and football operations manager John Didulica.

“And my wife’s the number one supporter here [at Heart]. She tries to watch them live from Korea when they play,” he added.

The 32-year-old will return to his K-League club Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in the first week of January for the start of pre-season.

“I’m probably looking at playing another couple of seasons in Asia and then if I’m fit enough and healthy enough and good enough I’d come back for a year or two,” he said.

“As a centre back if you lose that half yard of pace you can be found out.

"Doesn’t matter how clever you are.There are situations in games you’re going to need that half yard and if not you’re going to look silly. And I wouldn’t come back and do that.

“Unless I know myself I can play at a good level, I wouldn’t come back and play in the A-League.”

“But if not, I’d just go back and play for Preston!”

The powerful defender still has a contract for another season at Seongnam but played down a move in the January transfer window.

“There’s a little bit of interest here and there but there’s just speculation,” he said.

As for his long-felt desire to play in the Bundesliga, the defender all but ruled that out with his club’s transfer price tag – and his age – the main reasons.

“Not many clubs are going to pay $500,000 for me,” he added.

The former Brisbane Roar and Adelaide United star trained with Heart today and underlined his class in a training game.

Follow me on Twitter @Aidothejourno

CLICK HERE TO SEE HEART AND SASA TRAIN