Melbourne City coach Patrick Kisnorbo has blasted "irrelevant" criticism around the commitment of Socceroos forward Jamie Maclaren after Australia's automatic World Cup qualification hopes ended on Thursday.
Australia suffered a 2-0 loss to Japan in Sydney, with an unenviable intercontinental play-off route now their last hope of getting to Qatar later this year.
Maclaren had ruled himself out of next week's game with Saudi Arabia because he was due to get married, after COVID-19 forced him to postpone the event for the past two years.
If Australia had beaten Japan on Thursday a win in Jeddah would have secured automatic qualification for the World Cup.
Despite being the A-League Men's leading goalscorer with 12 for City this year, Maclaren was given just five minutes off the bench by Graham Arnold towards the end of the game.
He hardly had time to get into the contest.
On Network Ten the striker received stinging criticism from former Australian international Luke Wilkshire, who claimed he lacked commitment to the national team.
But when asked by AAP on Friday what he thought of the attacks on Maclaren, Kisnorbo teed off.
"It's unfair, his wedding is actually next week so to have a go at someone whose wedding is next week about a result where he got five minutes ... I think there's bigger issues," he said.
"I think you need to ask yourself bigger questions than that. He showed his commitment, he got called in and he's getting married next week. I repeat, next week.
"The selectors called him in, if they don't like what he said then don't choose him.
"People need to understand the facts. I don't make the decisions and you always want your country to do well.
"For what was said about his wedding, it's actually irrelevant to the game. He played the minutes he did and that was it."
Maclaren will be available for this Saturday's game against Macarthur FC.
He also hit back in the wake of City's decision to not release Curtis Good for the Socceroos camp.
"People need to have a look at themselves first before they start pointing fingers because I don't know what the club has done wrong," he said.
"I didn't deny Curtis. It was the rule.
"We asked to rearrange the fixture because we would have had five internationals gone and as a rule you must rearrange and that was unable to happen."
