Nathaniel Atkinson's Hearts situation addressed as Kye Rowles speaks on Aussie being cast aside at Riccarton

The defender is on international duty with Australia

Kye Rowles admitted his fellow Australian Nathaniel Atkinson is waiting for an opportunity to leave Hearts after being made available for transfer. Atkinson and Toby Sibbick were deemed surplus to requirements by head coach Steven Naismith this summer but, while Sibbick was sold to Wigan Athletic, Atkinson remains in limbo in Edinburgh.

Rowles revealed that he has sympathy with his international colleague’s predicament as he and fellow Hearts player Cammy Devlin arrived in Australia to prepare for upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Bahrain and Indonesia. Atkinson lost his place in the national coach Graham Arnold’s squad in June and is not involved in matchday squads at Hearts.

The 25-year-old trains every day with the club’s B team but is not considered part of the first-team plans. He is awaiting a chance to move on and rebuild his career with his contract expiring at the end of this season. “Look, he is fully fit. It’s a shame that he has been cast aside a bit at the club but he is in every day working hard,” said Rowles. “He is waiting for his opportunity, wherever that next chapter may be. I know he is itching to just play football and just get back here as soon as possible.”

Asked if it was good to get away from Scotland following Hearts’ difficult start to the season, Rowles replied: “Yes and no. You obviously want to make amends for the poor start. We’re just struggling to win games at the moment but hopefully that an change here, get that taste for winning again and hopefully take it back to the club.

“You just want to be in the best shape you can possibly be in for camp to be able to get as many minutes as possible - and show Arnie and the coaching staff that you should be playing. Whenever you can get minutes at your club, it’s always good. You want to be in good form to be able to perform at your best in the international windows.”

Australia host Bahrain on Thursday in Rowles’ home city Gold Coast. The match will be played at the Cbus Super Stadium in Robina, which has a 27,690 capacity with stands tightly packed around the perimeter of the pitch. “I love it here. It’s my home town so I’m just trying to soak it all in. I can’t wait to see family and friends and enjoy the good weather,” said Rowles.

“It’s pretty special. I’m sure it will be a great atmosphere tomorrow night. Whether it be a rugby-league stadium for the [Gold Coast] Titans, purpose-built football stadiums are great. The fans are right on top of you and you get that kind of interaction that they want to have. They are within touching distance and it makes the atmosphere 10 times better when they’re on top of you. It doesn’t really matter the number, just having that nice atmosphere goes a long way.”

Meeting the defender at the airport when he arrived back home was a familiar face from his past. “Yeah, a strange one. As soon as I saw him I was like: ‘No way.’ My under-13s coach from the Gold Coast, that was pretty special. It’s been 10 or 12 years since I last saw him but it put a smile on my face. A shout out to Rob.

“It’s pretty amazing to be where I am today, but I’m honoured and humbled. It’s obviously a massive privilege to play for your country, and to do it for the first time on the Gold Coast makes me speechless. To know within yourself that you can compete at the highest level and test yourself against those types of players in the big crunch games - to put yourself on the world stage, it’s just amazing. It shows what you can achieve with a good group. They [coaches] probably had more confidence in me than I did myself at the start. That’s the power of the group we have together here. It’s pretty special.”

Rowles feels more confident in himself now that he is playing regularly in a European league. However, Arnold has used him at left-back in recent international fixtures, whilst Hearts see him primarily as a central defender. “It [confidence] is getting there, not quite to the top, but just about,” said Rowles. “Like I said, it’s a special group.

“Each time you come back [together[, you have more and more belief in each other and you gain that trust. We are a bunch of brothers and every time we’re in camp it’s a really special time. I don’t really mind [which position], to be honest. I would play anywhere and do any job that he asks me to do. If I get an opportunity to be out there on the pitch with the boys, I’m taking it.

“You are obviously tired [travelling from Scotland]. Jetlag is a real thing, but for me, once you get out on the pitch, you just forget about it all and do your job. You are fully focused - a bit of white-line fever. It’s only 90 minutes, you just give it everything you’ve got and play to your ability.”

Australia are aiming to finish in the top two of their qualifying section to secure automatic progress to the 2026 World Cup finals. They reached the last tournament in Qatar via a nerve-shredding penalty shootout at the end of a one-legged intercontinental play-off against Peru. The match was only Rowles’ third international outing and he explained why he would rather avoid a repeat scenario by earning a top-two place.

“It’s obviously immense, you want automatic qualifying,” he said. “Those play-off games were my first insight into that. It was pretty intense, I couldn’t imagine watching it. Being involved was different. We believed that we could win the games, but from the outside it was probably very stressful. If we can take that stress away from everyone involved then I think it’s a massive step to moving forward with football in this country.

“Bahrain will come out full-throttle and it will be a physical game, so if we match them in that aspect then I think we’ve got a good chance. We’ve just got to focus on ourselves, playing to the best of our ability, and hopefully the result takes care of itself.

“To the outsiders, they are probably minnows but they are top-quality opponents. They have been for some time now. They are the games you want to play in. You don’t deserve to get through if you can’t beat the best teams in qualifying. They will be tough opponents and hopefully good quality football matches.”