For veteran Australian midfielder Jackson Irvine, being part of this particular group of Socceroos is, in his own words, the biggest joy of his career — and he believes they can be special.

It is not just the prospect of lining up at a third-straight World Cup after an injury-stricken past year, and there is an alternative timeline where Irivne could have easily missed the tournament.

For Irvine, a midfield mainstay with 82 caps, this current Socceroos squad is special — and as some one who played with Socceroos legends like Tim Cahill and Mark Bresciano at the start of his international career, it is saying quite something.

“To be a part of this squad, in every aspect of my life, it’s the biggest joy in my career,” he told The West Australian.

“To be a young player and have a chance even at the very tail-end play with some of the guys I did...these kind of guys you grew up absolutely idolising, having the chance to play with them.

“I’ve been through that whole journey of transition and come now into a group with probably the group of players with the highest ceiling I’ve ever seen in this squad at one time.

“There’s more than a handful that have got such incredible potential, which we’re already starting to see, and I don’t even think they’ve scratched the surface of where they can get to.”

The 33 year-old, who skippers German side St Pauli, was a Socceroos fan long before he debuted for them in 2013.

Aged 11, he was in the crowd on that faithful night of November 16, 2005, when Australia finally ended their World Cup absence against Uruguay, and then travelled to Germany to watch the Socceroos in the tournament itself.

“It’s amazing to see the development, as people, as a group, the changing face of the squad is always interesting, because the dynamic shifts, but it never really changes completely,” Irvine said.

“This team has such a strong foundation of history, and what it means to be here — even as the personalities change and the age of the players, it never loses that core.

“Especially when you’ve got a head coach that was also a player here and assistant coaches who also played here, the heart of it never really shifts what the Socceroos is. We have something totally unique here, it’s not like anywhere else.”

It has been a long road to the World Cup for Irvine, having been beset to by a series of foot injuries over the past year, which forced him to miss Australia’s last-gasp 1-0 win over Japan in Perth thanks to a late Aziz Behich strike which all but guaranteed them a spot in North America.

“The June one was the hardest one. After the March window against Indonesia and China, where I was probably having my best ever camp for the national team, through that whole season, I was probably in the best form I’ve been with the national team ever,” Irvine said.

“The injury was already on its way, but then that was when it reached the point of, we had to intervene

“Having been part of two qualifications, the day you actually seal it, it’s a special one, so I was sad to miss it — but of course I nearly fell off the sofa on my crutches when Aziz scored.”

The foot problems would rear their ugly head again early this year, when suffered a recurrence of the issue in January. Socceroos coach Tony Popovic would late say he expected Irvine to miss the World Cup, and the man himself confirmed his boss was on the money.

“I was essentially told I would miss it when the recurrence happened, that was the reality in that moment,” he said.

“It wasn’t until exploring every possible alternative within the team of people we were having those conversations with, we took the calculated risk to go down a certain path.

“Thankfully that’s been the best decision I could have possibly made. It took a little bit of navigating that situation, but ultimately we found a decision that worked for everyone.

“There’s always the surgical option, two alternative surgical options, which might end up having to be explored again somewhere down the line — that’s for another day, but in the end, if I’d have taken either of those paths at that time, they would have meant missing the World Cup for sure.”

The path Irvine followed was the one of least pressure on his foot as he worked around the clock to manage the load on his foot. Matches were the priority, his preparation geared around getting him ready to perform in the run home of the German Bundesliga season.

He started 13 of St Pauli’s 14 final Bundesliga games. It was sadly not enough to help his team fight off relegation to the German season, but did confirm in Popovic’s mind he would be healthy for the World Cup.

And as much as relegation with St Pauli, who Irvine has committed to staying with next season, has hurt him, coming into Socceroos camp and being selected for a third World Cup has him feeling once more like the kid who watched Australia beat Japan 3-1 all those years ago.

“It’s different every time but it’s equally special and the way you approach it changes a little bit. But in the same way, you still get that same buzz, that same excitement that comes.

“The first one, especially when you’re not as cemented in the team and you have that anxiety of wanting to be part of the squad and be there.

“Qatar in 2022 I was more of a solidified member of the squad, and it’s more of anticipation, wanting to perform.

“This one, having only been in one squad over the last, 15, 16 months, and battling against a couple of other external factors, it feels more like the first one again.”