Prior to the 23-year-old's move to Urawa in January last year, injuries had played a major role in restricting Spiranovic to only 28 first-team appearances in four years at German club FC Nurnberg.

However, the Geelong-born defender's first campaign in the J.League last year wasn't without injury troubles too, as a hamstring problem interrupted his season restricting him to 18 appearances.

Spiranovic's 2011 campaign, though, has been much smoother in a fitness sense, making 14 out of 16 J.League appearances to become a regular starter for Urawa.

“It's been a good run. The whole year I've been fit and healthy. It's been nice to play consistently for the past eight months,” Spiranovic told au.fourfourtwo.com

“I'm injury free and playing regularly so I can't complain.”

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for Spiranovic in 2011 with Urawa, who are Japan's best supported club with an average home crowd of 40,000, lurking near the drop zone having recorded just three wins this season.

“It's been a frustrating season so far. In the games where we have played well, we've drawn a lot of them. We have the most draws in the league. It shows where we're at at the moment,” Spiranovic said.

“It'd be a different scenario if we were playing terribly and we were getting outplayed and losing every week. But like this it makes it even more frustrating, when you're dominating and you can't finish off a team.

“Every game which goes where we're losing points, the pressure gets bigger and bigger. There's still a lot of games to go in the season, so we know we can turn it around. We're on the right track.”

Urawa's fortunes have improved recently, snapping a nine-game winless run by beating struggling Avispa Fukuoka 3-0 in mid-June and since then they've been undefeated.

Wednesday's 2-0 win over Kawasaki Frontale moved the side up to 13th, three points clear of the drop zone.

“We've played some tough games in the past few weeks against some of the top clubs in Japan and we've been better. We were the better team in a lot of games,” Spiranovic said.

“When the luck changes and we start finding the back of the net more consistently then I can see us being up there.”

Despite the team's struggles, Spiranovic told au.fourfourtwo.com he was happy with his own form this season, with Urawa only conceding 18 goals in 16 matches.

“I feel I've been consistent this season with my performances. We've kept a few clean sheets. Defensively we've been pretty strong,” Spriranovic said.

“We've let ourselves down on set-pieces and free-kicks, with a lack of marking which is frustrating as a defender. You defend well for 70 minutes, then you have a corner or a free-kick and you concede, so that's definitely frustrating at times.”

Spiranovic, though, has confirmed himself as a regular in the heart of defence for Urawa in 2011, although he insists he isn't worried about the fact he's out of contract at the end of the season.

“At the moment I'm focusing on the next game, not looking too far ahead. I'm really enjoying myself here, it's a fantastic club,” Spiranovic said.

“Obviously it (a new contract) depends on how things go this season, but my main goal is to continue playing and doing my best.”

Spiranovic did admit he still pined for a return to Europe though.

He added: “I'm still young, so I can definitely see myself in the future going back overseas.”