Perth Glory players Mile Sterjovski and Jacob Burns will train with English Premier League club Fulham as they strive to gain selection for the Australian World Cup squad. The duo will undertake a five-week training schedule with the Cottagers, linking up with Socceroos veteran goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Burns said it was important to continue training at a top level during the A-League off-season and also expressed his gratitude to Fulham boss Roy Hodgson.

"We had Pim's (Verbeek) blessing to go to a top European club and keep training and that was a good thing to do," Burns said.

"There may be a certain few that are walk-in starters but for the majority of the group it's going to be a battle till the end. I feel as though we've (he and Sterjovski) had a decent season behind us and (Verbeek) knows that it's a dream and we'll be doing everything we can to be there. With injuries, with form, with managers not playing players everyone's in with a chance.

"We're forever in his (Hodgson's) debt for having us there. Training at a level of football such as Fulham could be as good, if not better, than some of the other leagues in the world playing games.

"You can look at it this way - there's a whole lot of (Australian) players in Europe that aren't playing. I think it's impossible to think that Verbeek's going to have 23 players playing week-in, week-out leading into the World Cup."