The Blues winger, who played his first game for almost two months in the 2-0 defeat at West Brom last weekend, has been named in Socceroos coach Frank Farina's provisional 29-man squad for the Powerade Series games against Iraq at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney on Saturday 26th March and Indonesia at the Subiaco Oval in Perth on Tuesday 29th March.
Lazaridis was used as a 37th minute substitute for Olivier Tebily at The Hawthorns last weekend, his first appearance since he sustained a thigh injury in the FA Cup tie against Leeds back in January so it will be interesting to see if he considers himself fit enough to participate in the Aussies upcoming international games.
Blues boss Steve Bruce has already indicated that he will nurse the 33-year-old winger back into his first team squad.
Australian Squad: Paul Agostino (1860 Munich), John Aloisi (Osasuna), Clint Bolton (Sydney FC), Marco Bresciano (Parma), Tim Cahill (Everton), Scott Chipperfield (Basel), Simon Colosimo* (Perth Glory), Jason Culina (FC Twente), Ahmad Elrich (Busan I Cons), Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers), Vince Grella (Parma), Zeljko Kalac (Perugia), Steve Laybutt (KAA Ghent), Stan Lazaridis (Birmingham City), Jon McKain (National Bucuresti), Ljubo Milicevic (FC Thun), Ante Milicic (Newcastle Jets), Craig Moore (Borussia Monchengladbach), Kevin Muscat (Millwall), Lucas Neill (Blackburn Rovers), Jade North (Newcastle Jets), Tony Popovic (Crystal Palace), Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough), Josip Skoko (Genclerbirligi), Mile Sterjovski (Basel), Danny Tiatto (Leicester City), Tony Vidmar (Cardiff City), Luke Wilkshire (Bristol City), David Zdrilic (Sydney FC).
