Australia NewsRoo's Future Is Academic |
BEIJING Olyroo Trent McClenahan has revealed he has agreed to sign a new one-year-deal to stay at Scottish Premier League club Hamilton Academicals.
McClenahan, 24, was offered a one-year-contract earlier in the European summer by the Accies and had reportedly been mulling over the deal since, but in an exclusive interview with au.fourfourtwo.com he confirmed that he would be signing on for another year at Hamilton.
The former West Ham United youngster, who is currently in Australia having undergone surgery on a hernia problem which had troubled him through the back-end of last season, said: "I will be re-signing with Hamilton. I will going be going back to Hamilton.
"It's not signed yet, but I would think in the next couple of days it's going to be signed off. But it is pretty much agreed."
It is believed in the wake of the Setanta collapse Hamilton were only willing to offer McClenahan a deal for one season, which may have disappointed the defender.
But McClenahan, who joined Hamilton in September 2008, said he wanted to stay with the Accies despite acknowledging there were other options for him.
"There was a little bit of interest here and there but things went well last year and I was happy there," he said. "I really enjoyed my time. I definitely wanted to stay there at least another season."
And with pre-season getting under way back at Hamilton, the Olyroo is making good progress in his recovery after hernia surgery.
He added: "I'm about five and a half weeks into rehab now since the operation. It looks like I'm probably going to be able to start training in a week and a half to two weeks.
"I'm about two weeks ahead of schedule in the recovery so that's great. So I can't complain, as they told me ten weeks in the recovery and it looks like it's going to be more like eight.
"I'll be able to get quite a bit of pre-season as well before the season which is good."
A good pre-season will be important for McClenahan too, who despite being a long shot for the Socceroos 2010 World Cup squad, harbours an ambition to don the green and gold at senior level and wants to be ready for any opportunity.
"I had a discussion with Graham Arnold towards the end of last season and I know they've been keeping tabs on me and he came to watch me as well," he revealed.
"That's the goal, but first and foremost you've just got to train, play well for your club, play regularly for your club and then if something comes of it then that's great. But that's out of my hands.
"So I've just got to concentrate on doing well for Hamilton this year and then hopefully Pim will give me a chance."
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