LUKE Wilkshire celebrated his 30th birthday last week - and now he has suddenly found himself one of the Socceroos' elder statesmen.

The absence of Aussie superstars Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Brett Emerton and Mark Schwarzer has left Wilkshire one of three men in their 30s to play against Oman in tomorrow night's World Cup Asian qualifier.

And Wilkshire's big-game experience is sure to prove vital given the limited amount of international caps in Holger Osieck's lineup.

Wilkshire was shocked when he spotted his age in a match-day program prior to Friday's friendly against Malaysia.

"I definitely feel like one of the older players now I've just hit the big '3-0'," said Wilkshire, who celebrated his birthday last Sunday week.

"I've been around a while, there are still a few of us senior players, but we've got a very young squad and it's great to see. Everyone grows old and I'm no different.

"There are always changes, you get them at club level, you get them at international level, I've seen it in the many years I've been involved [with Australia], it's great to be a part of and I want it to continue."

The unheralded Wilkshire scored the opener against Malaysia and bagged his first international goal against Oman in 2009.

The midfielder, who was once identified by former Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink as one of the most technically-gifted players in Australian colours, has been around long enough to know Oman can not be treated lightly. Wilkshire will no doubt remind a few of his teammates of that very fact before kick-off at ANZ Stadium.

"There's no such thing as an easy game or easy international," Wilkshire said. "I guess you can look at [last Friday's 5-0 win] and say it looked easy, but you have to give credit to the players who made the game look easy.

"We've played Oman a few times now, we know what they're capable of, they're unpredictable and a quality team we know can cause problems if we're not at 100 per cent and fully focused the whole game.

"They need to win, a draw is not good enough for them at this stage given their poor start [to the qualifiers]. They're definitely well organised and will make it difficult for us.

"We have to break them down and take our chances."

Oman trained at Parramatta Stadium yesterday and will have a final hitout at ANZ Stadium tonight.