MARK Viduka wants to forget about his new role as a Premiership substitute and concentrate on helping his country end 32 years of World Cup heartache.

Viduka, who has not started a league game for Middlesbrough since the defeat to Sunderland in September, will be lining up for Australia on Saturday for the first of two legs in a play-off with Uruguay for the Germany finals.

The Boro striker knows that next summer's sporting highlight is realistically his last chance of appearing in a World Cup for the Aussies, after celebrating his 30th birthday last month.

Viduka admits that having experienced past play-off failures, against Uruguay four years ago and to Iran in 1997, has made him even more desperate to earn qualification this time around.

The Aussies travel to Montevideo on Saturday before the return fixture is held in Sydney four days later. "The one thing I really want to achieve in my career is to help my country clinch a place in the finals," said Viduka, who is joined in the squad by Boro keeper Mark Schwarzer.

"Qualifying for Germany would mean absolutely everything to me in football terms. I don't think I'll be around for the next World Cup finals because I'll be nearly 35 by then.

"This is my last chance but not just mine - there are a lot of players who are in the same position."

Australia have not qualified for the World Cup since they were staged in West Germany in 1974 and Viduka would love to be part of a squad that ended such a long absence from the tournament.

The next time the World Cup comes around the Socceroos will have left the Oceania confederation and become members of the Asian confederation, which has four direct qualifying berths to the finals.

"I am optimistic of beating Uruguay because we have the right personnel but that was also the case ahead of the last tournament and we didn't manage it," admitted Viduka.

"We have an opportunity to erase a few painful memories and we can't afford to waste it.

"Someone asked me if I had learned anything about football from the World Cup the last time around and I certainly learned that football is very unpredictable.

"You can learn from one game but it doesn't necessarily prepare you for the next one because that game is out of the ordinary. It's like a Cup final.

"It's about the team which has probably prepared the best and wants it most or has that luck on the day. It's a combination of things.

"For example, nine times out of ten Exeter City would lose 10-0 to Manchester United but they managed to draw with them in the FA Cup at Old Trafford last season. It's the same situation with the World Cup play-offs."

* Referees chief Keith Hackett believes football can learn from the example of rugby by allowing broadcasts from match officials' microphones.

Rugby referees are regularly wired up for big televised matches and Hackett believes such a system in football would help the public understand decisions on the field. He also feels it would have the added bonus of curbing player dissent.

Hackett, general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, said: ''We did mike up referees and assistants to improve communication. The problem was in the London area referees were getting calls for cabs to take them to various parts of London!"

Read more about Middlesbrough here.