Van Marwijk today named Cahill in the 32-player preliminary squad for the 2018 World Cup, alongside fellow strikers Tomi Juric, Apostolos Giannou, Jamie Maclaren and Nikita Rukavytsya.

Midway through this season Cahill returned to English Championship side Millwall after limited game time in the A-League with Melbourne City.

However, his time with the London based side was restricted to cameo appearances off the bench and his season ended in ignominy when he was handed a three-match ban due to violent conduct.

Despite this, van Marwijk still views Cahill as a key figure for the Socceroos.

“He’s a special player. He is a special case,” he said.

“He is special in everything. He is 38 and he is maybe one of the best players to have ever played for Australia. He is a good striker."

The Dutchman will trim the squad from 32 to 26 on Sunday, June 3 and whether or not he takes Cahill to his fourth World Cup will be one of the most anticipated choices of all.

"I have to make a decision about taking him to the World Cup. Yes or no?" van Marwijk said.

"He is not 19 like Daniel Arzani, he is twice as old as Arzani but he’s also a player that can make a difference and he won't be nervous when we play in front of 80,000 people.

“I have to make a choice at the end about the strikers and that will not be easy - that is why I’m here and I am not afraid of that, but he is a special case.”

When it comes to who will be Australia’s main World Cup striker, van Marwijk said he will only take a couple of options to Russia.

“I am 100% sure about one or two strikers and I will not nominate five or six strikers,” he said. “You are talking about strikers, but you are talking about different styles.

"Juric and Giannou, they are very big strikers, who you can play the ball to and they can keep it and (allow) other players tp come around.

“You also have strikers who are very fast and both strikers you sometimes need. I like playing with fast players, especially offensive, but it has to fit. The players have to fit together.

“I don’t think I will do this, but normally you will not nominate only three very big strikers, so then you have to make up the difference between a big striker and a fast striker.”

Van Marwijk also made note of Scottish based Maclaren who has scored five goals in 13 games for Hibernian.

“We were also in Scotland (monitoring Maclaren) and it’s important that players score goals, especially strikers,” he said.

“I also know very famous strikers who don’t score goals and I will still nominate a striker who I think makes the team better even if he's not scoring goals at the moment."