IVAN Franjic’s agony is poised to be Ryan McGowan’s big moment, with the China-based defender the favourite to replace the hamstrung Franjic when Australia face Holland on Thursday (AEST).

Franjic was yesterday ruled out of the rest of the tournament by coach Ange Postecoglou after scans revealed the Brisbane rightback had torn his hamstring during Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Chile.

Though Postecoglou said McGowan was one of several options to replace Franjic, he came off the bench against Chile and is expected to get the nod against a side swaggering after a 5-1 hammering of Spain.

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McGowan himself refused to assume anything, having not played rightback regularly for more than two years, but said he was ready to answer the call.

“The boss has a few options to play out and we don’t know what he’ll do but I think everyone is devastated for Ivan that the injury has come,” he said.

“No one likes to see that. But at the same time it’s another opportunity for one of the boys that didn’t start to prove in training they are ready to and get some game time.

media_camera Ivan Franjic knows something serious is wrong.

McGowan himself refused to assume anything, having not played rightback regularly for more than two years, but said he was ready to answer the call.

“The boss has a few options to play out and we don’t know what he’ll do but I think everyone is devastated for Ivan that the injury has come,” he said.

“No one likes to see that. But at the same time it’s another opportunity for one of the boys that didn’t start to prove in training they are ready to and get some game time.

media_camera Ryan McGowan is the favourite to replace the injured Ivan Franjic for Australia’s clash with Holland. Picture: Clive Brunskill.

“Ivan’s no good, he had a scan today that rules him out for the tournament, and that’s a real disappointment,” he said. “He was growing into the tournament and into the game - first 15 minutes everything was a bit quick for him but after that he settled into the task and set up the goal really well.

“He was getting to grips with it so it’s a massive disappointment. I’ll talk to him later but there’s not a lot you can say. But what he’s tasted should be motivation to come back for more.

media_camera Mile Jedinak congratulates Ivan Franjic on his goal assist.

“Ryan is a solution, there could be a couple of different things in the way we approach things. Holland represents a different problem to Chile, so we’ll have a look in the next couple of days.

“Everyone is fairly sore and pretty fatigued, the conditions were oppressive and in the end the boys were spent. It will take 24-48 hours to recover but that’s part of the process and we expect everyone else to be right.”