Mitch Austin. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Camera IconMitch Austin. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images

Mitch Austin on representing Victory in the E-League and recovering from his ACL injury

Anna HarringtonNews Corp Australia

IT was an innocuous training incident that turned Mitch Austin’s season upside down.

Back in November, the winger collided with goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas, only to later learn he had ruptured his ACL.

The news was devastating for the pacy 26-year-old, who had never experienced a long-term injury before.

But the unfortunate injury has opened up a new opportunity for Austin.

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Victory recently announced the winger would be the club’s Xbox representative in the upcoming inaugural E-League season.

“Obviously I’m injured at the moment so that was probably the main factor — and just giving me something else to do really. I can’t do much at the club and I can’t play,” Austin told foxsports.com.au.

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“But obviously I’ve got a pretty big FIFA background myself, I obviously play quite a fair bit and I’ve got a pretty big following on social media who are all into FIFA as well — so the club asked me if I’d be keen to do it and I just said ‘yes’.

“So I don’t really know too much about how it’s all gonna work but it’s something new and something I’ve been looking forward to.”

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The E-League is an initiative designed to connect players of the FIFA18 game with the A-League. Each A-League club has two players — one PlayStation 4, one Xbox — who compete in a tournament where each club faces each other once, with professional players playing FIFA against one another.

For Austin, taking on the commitment has meant loading up his schedule to allow him to train in FIFA around his rehab work.

“I do my rehab and stuff in the morning so obviously I’m usually finished around 2pm,” he said.

“And then mainly in the evenings I’ll do some practice with the other esports guy and we’ll just play against each other or play online.

“So there’s plenty of time really, I think you can only play so many games anyway on FIFA before your eyes start to go and you get a bit of a headache if you play too many so I just play a bit at night and that’s all I really need I think.”

Mitch Austin. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Camera IconMitch Austin. (AAP Image/Joe Castro) Credit: AAP

While he’s set to come up against some tough competition, Austin hopes his experience with the media will give him an edge over his professional FIFA-playing rivals.

“I think under pressure it’s a bit different when you’ve got a camera in your face and people are watching — I think it’s a bit different to just sitting in your bedroom and playing under no pressure, if you know what I mean,” he said.

“Obviously it’s at the Fox studios, which I don’t think some of the guys will be used to, but obviously I’ve been there many times myself doing Fox things and stuff like that.

“So hopefully the media side will give me a bit of an edge because some people are not obviously comfortable in doing it, so we’ll see how it plays out.

“But these guys, a lot of them are professional FIFA players anyway, so I think they’d be a bit more worried about losing to me because it’d be probably more embarrassing if I beat them.

“So there’s no pressure on me — I’m just looking forward to hopefully taking a few of these guys on and showing them professional footballers are actually okay at FIFA as well.”

Victory celebrate Mitch Austin's goal. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Camera IconVictory celebrate Mitch Austin's goal. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins) Credit: AAP

As a part of the E-League, every player must select three A-League players to be a part of his team in the game.

For Austin, that’s meant listening to the case of every teammate who fancies their abilities in the game.

And while some have been quickly shut down, others — like Victory marksman Besart Berisha — have been more persuasive.

“We were actually having that conversation at lunch today, the boys were asking who I’m gonna pick,” Austin said.

“I’m not 100 per cent sure actually really, I’m just doing a bit of practice this week with some of the Victory guys on there. So I’m leaning towards Jason Geria, probably Berisha and I might even put myself in to be honest.

“So we’ll see how we go with that but I’m hoping that if it doesn’t obviously work out for the game next weekend or the weekend after that we’re allowed to change the three players around. But we’ll see how we go.

“Lawrence Thomas today was having a go about me not putting him in the goals — but his rating’s not quite as high as probably David De Gea from Manchester United who I’m going to be picking.

“But I wouldn’t dare not put Berisha in there because I wouldn’t hear the end of it, so it’s not even worth the hassle of not putting him in.”

Besart Berisha celebrates with Mitch Austin.
Camera IconBesart Berisha celebrates with Mitch Austin. Credit: News Corp Australia, George Salpigtidis

As for his own football, Austin has overcome the initial disappointment of his knee injury, largely due to the help and support of other players to have gone through the experience, including Brisbane striker Corey Gameiro.

“I was quite surprised really, the amount of people who contacted me who obviously have done it. It’s kind of an ACL club, as they all like to call it,” Austin said.

“I think it’s just because everyone knows how hard it is — they just want to offer some relief. So when the guy at Western Sydney (Jonathan Aspropotamitis) did it I was one of the first people to message him because I know how bad it is, getting the news that you’ve done it — especially because he hadn’t done it before either.

“Mentally it just kills you just because you know how long it’s going to be and everyone knows how bad the rehab is.

“So the support was great and I couldn’t believe the people who messaged me — Corey Gameiro at Brisbane, who I’ve never even spoken to before, he called me on the phone straight away and I chatted to him for about half an hour about it.

“So it’s been very good — so it’s made me feel better and the actual process hasn’t been too hard, to be honest.”

Now, the forward is closing in on a return to running — and starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Although he comes out of contract at Victory at the end of the season, his focus is firmly on a return to action by pre-season.

“I think I’m just under three months (post-surgery) now, so I’m happy to be back running in maybe three weeks’ time,” Austin said.

“So it’s all coming along to plan, I’m just sort of planning for pre-season next season, is my target.

“But obviously the good thing there is we don’t start til October. So there’s plenty of time, I don’t need to rush it which is good. So everything’s coming along good, which is great.

“I’m not actually (contracted beyond the season) — but hopefully I can secure a contract, whether it’s at Victory or elsewhere.

“Hopefully Victory and we’ll see how we go for there — that’s my aim obviously to start pre-season and looking to be good to go.”

The E-League kicks off at 8pm (AEST) on Thursday 15 February and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports. You can watch live online every week at foxsports.com.au!