Socceroos coach Holger Osieck says Sasa Ognenovski's ability to intimidate and 'scare' strikers convinced him to end the central defender's international exile for this month's friendly against Egypt in Cairo.
Ognenovski was consistently overlooked under the Pim Verbeek regime but has impressed the right people with a string of outstanding performances for South Korean club Seongnam Illwha.
The 31-year-old captained his team to the AFC Champions League final and was nominated alongside Tim Cahill in the region's player-of-the-year award.
Ognenovski is one of two uncapped players in Osieck's squad for the November 17 meeting with Egypt, with Danish-based goalkeeper Nathan Coe also given his chance to shine in the last match before the Asian Cup squad is announced.
"Over the last couple of months he really performed well," Osieck said of Ognenovski.
"I got excellent reports about him from a pretty good network through Asia."
"I thought it was time to give him the opportunity and have a look at him when he joins our group."
"It's a good opportunity to have him with the group and see if he can integrate and help our team."
Asked what impressed him most about the 195cm Ognenovski, Osieck responded: "His presence. He can be a very intimidating factor for the attacking team, the opponent's team."
"It's always good to have someone people are a bit scared of."
"He's strong in the air, he's very athletic."
"He is a very strong defender and hopefully he can help our team."
"It's time to give a player like Ognenovski the opportunity and not necessarily people I have watched already."
"It enlarges our picture."
Ognenovski admitted he thought international football may have passed him by when continually overlooked by Verbeek.
But his outstanding club form - on top of the AFC player-of-the-year nomination - resuscitated his hopes of a call-up.
Ognenovski agrees with Osieck's assessment that his in-your-face approach is an asset, especially against the smaller Asian players.
"There aren't too many big, intimidating centre-halves floating around Asia," he said.
"(With) us coming up against the Asian teams in the Asian Cup - if he's (Osieck) looking that far ahead - then obviously having a big centre half who is going to intimidate some of the Asian countries is always good."
Osieck said Coe's selection was a case of giving another fresh face an audition rather than a change in the goalkeeping pecking order.
The Socceroos boss is not ruling any player in or out of his Asian Cup plans at this stage.
"We are definitely not sleeping, I can assure you that," he declared.
"We have our eyes everywhere."