Luke Wilkshire

Middlesbrough

Wilkshire played his junior football with his home town club of Albion Park and attended Albion Park High School. He moved on to represent his region by joining the Wollongong Wolves youth setup and spending several seasons there. Wilkshire then travelled to Canberra to spend a year at the AIS football program, Australia's elite sports academy. He then moved overseas and was part of Middlesbrough's youth system. After progressing through the first team, Wilkshire made his Middlesbrough debut on 6 March 2002, where he played the whole game, in a 1–1 draw against Southampton. After making eight appearances in all competitions in the 2001–02 season, he signed a contract extension with the club, keeping him until 2004. He went on to make further senior appearances for them in the Premier League, including a sending off against Arsenal, and also started in an FA Cup semi-final., but ultimately never established himself in the first team.

Bristol City

In search of regular football, Wilkshire decided on a move to Second Division club Bristol City for an undisclosed fee. The transfer fee was revealed as £220K. Wilkshire made his Bristol City debut, making his first start and playing 90 minutes, in a 5–0 win over Notts County in the opening game of the season. Since making his debut, he established himself in the first team and it wasn't until on 7 November 2003 when he scored his first Bristol City goal, in the first round of the FA Cup, in a 5–2 win…

Wilkshire has represented Australia at youth level earlier in his career, playing in the 2001 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina, and in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, where he once captained the side against Iraq. After this, Wilkshire was called up by the national team for the first time and made his debut, in a 5–1 win over Solomon Islands in the first leg of the OFC Nations Cup Final and played again in the second leg, which saw them win the tournament after beating them 6–0. During three years of playing regular first-team football for Bristol City, Wilkshire's game and versatility improved; so much so that former Australia coach, Guus Hiddink, described him as a "modern player." Hiddink also claimed Wilkshire was one of the most technically gifted players in the Socceroo side. Wilkshire was selected in Australia's squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and started against Japan and Italy. On 14 November 2009, Wilkshire scored his first goal for his country in a 2–1 win over Oman in an Asian Cup Qualifier, in Muscat, Oman. Despite Australia going down to 10-men and conceding a penalty to go down 1–0, Wilkshire scored the equaliser in the 43rd minute. He was then involved in the second goal in the 82nd minute putting a left-footed ball over the Omani defence to set David Carney free who then crossed to Brett Emerton who scored to win the game 2–1 for Australia. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Wilkshire started in all three group games for Australia. Playing at right back, Wilkshire…

Wilkshire served as an assistant coach with the Australia U-20 team in 2023, and served as an assistant coach with Australia from 2023 to 2024.

Wilkshire was married to Quyeny (who is from Vietnam) and together, they have one child. Wilkshire considers Russia as his second home. He has two other children, Paige and Toby, with Sally Ashton. Toby is signed up to play for Wollongong when he turns 16, and is a season ticket holder at Middlesbrough FC. As of 2016, Wilkshire is married to Russian Christina and lives in Khimki, Moscow Oblast with her and their two children. Wilkshire is a convert to Russian Orthodox Christianity.