After a disappointing draw at the weekend with Iraq in absolutely horrendous conditions, Jedinak has this time lead Australia to victory over the UAE.
This keeps alive Aussie hopes of World Cup qualification with Japan & Saudi Arabia currently leading the group.
On a better pitch & back on home soil back, Jedinak again Captained his country, who appeared to have more stamina than their opponents.
On this, Jedinak commented:
To be honest, they ran out of legs.  They didn’t want to go for it. And we stuck at it. And we knew we’d get our opportunities in the end.
[Source: Fox]
The game also featured fellow Championship midfielder Jackson Irvine, Burton Albion’s record signing (£330,000 – 2016).  The 24 year old, who represented Scotland at youth level, scored the opener and his first at senior international level to see Australia on their way to victory.
AIR MILES
Jedinak now faces an arduous 22 hour direct flight from Sydney (10,500 miles) back to the UK. Â This is compounded by earlier flights from the UK to Iran, Tehran, (Iraq’s “neutral” venue) – 5.5 hours (2731 miles). Â Followed by the trip from Tehran to Sydney 16.5 hours (8023 miles).
All assuming that his flight schedule was direct of & excludes a likely onward domestic connection from a London to Birmingham.
Villa are set to face Norwich this Saturday at 3pm – that’s barely 4 days from now.
This kind of travel schedule has to impact upon an individual physically & was a major contributing factor (in The Villa Underground’s view) to indifferent early season form.
With Jedinak an increasingly important figure in the squad ahead of a crucial 2017/18 season – can Villa afford for him to be fatigued or away (as will be the case) from late August 2017 (Japan & Thailand internationals)?
It stands to be a critical time for the football club, certainly where we will need his qualities to ensure a good start to any promotion push.
HEALTH
There also exists a plethora of evidence to support the notion that frequent long haul flying is bad for the body.  This extends to the obvious dehydration, sleep deprivation, right through to major issues such as DVT.
Whilst such issues could be labelled as “to be expected”, the significance is principally around how Jedinak can manage this, particularly as he’s now the wrong side of 30.
This is backed-up more specifically by a study which tracked dipping performance for athletes who cross several timezones as part of their schedules. Â Something that Jedinak does routinely as part of his international commitments for Australia.