It's not often a player relies on playing for the All Whites to get some much-needed game time, but that's just what midfielder Bill Tuiloma is anticipating.
Tuiloma arrived in Auckland early Tuesday morning and is eagerly getting stuck into the All Whites training camp ahead of the Oceania Nations Cup in Papua New Guinea.
Jet-lagged from his early arrival, Tuiloma wasn't made to jump straight into a team endurance test, but the 21-year-old's craving all the action he can while he's with the squad, who will play three warm-up games in Australia.
Tuiloma joined the team from France, where he's been on loan with French side RC Strasbourg Alsace for the past eight months.
"It's been up and down, I haven't been playing," Tuiloma said
I was injured at one point, but the club's going good and we're sitting on top with one win needed from three games to get promoted to League Two.
"This camp and the tournament coming up is very important for me to get fit and get game time and improve my football."
(Photosport)
Tuiloma has two more years with parent club Marseille, but admits he'll be returning to a club with some uncertainty hanging over it.
"The coach has left and now the president wants to sell the club. We're waiting on who wants to buy the club and who wants to put their money in the team.
"At the moment we don't know what the dates are for the preparation or pre-season games, but I'm just waiting until we get the dates and I'll go back straight away."
Tuiloma remains committed to the Ligue 1 club and admits he hasn't thought about leaving, despite the uphill task of making the squad.
"I'm very committed to Marseille and hopefully everything will be okay when I go back."
Preparing for the OFC Nations Cup, Tuiloma can touch on previous experience of playing in PNG.
Tuiloma was part of the New Zealand under-23 side that was controversially disqualified from the men's Olympic qualifiers last year for fielding ineligible player Deklan Wynne.
"Every time someone comes up with the situation in PNG it just makes me a little bit angry. We could have been at the Olympics, that could have been us in the finals but things happen in football and we just need to learn from it.
"I was just upset. I didn't have anything to say about it. I just left it to New Zealand Football because that's what they have to do and all we do is just play football."
Coach Anthony Hudson will name his All Whites squad for the Nations Cup on Thursday.
Newshub.
