Melbourne Victory star Mitch Austin stunned viewers when he walked out of a live interview with ABC TV following a “panic attack”.

The 26-year-old forward was in the network’s Melbourne studios to discuss the A-League season, which begins this weekend.

ABC sports presenter Georgie Tunny began the interview by thanking Austin for his time but her first question threw the footballer.

“You’re kicking off this season in a pretty difficult fashion,” she said.

“It’s the grand final replay on Saturday night – Melbourne Victory up against the Sky Blues [Sydney won in a penalty shootout].

“How do the club and the players and yourself even, deal with the fallout from last season’s grand final?”

“Yeah, obviously it was pretty tough,” Austin said in response.

“Obviously we’ve got to … sorry, I’ve just got to go to the toilet.”

It was at this point that Austin got up and walked across the camera and out of the interview, leaving Tunny stunned.

“Oh, oh … we’ve just lost Mitch,” she said.

“But I’ll head back to you, PK [co-host Paul Kennedy] and Virginia [co-host Virginia Trioli] and we’ll see what’s happening.”

Watch the interview below

The power of live TV. Let's hope Mitch Austin is ok after his walk out during the interview on #newsbreakfast on our #ABC! pic.twitter.com/VreP2Qp2ts

— Maurice Billi – armitage*shanks 💪🏼 🏏⚽️🎾🏉🥁 (@mauricebilli) October 2, 2017

Austin then walked in front of an equally surprised Kennedy and Trioli, the latter saying: “Ah, there goes Mitch. We’ll look after Mitch.

“We’ll make sure that he’s okay.”

Kennedy and Trioli smoothed the situation over, with Tunny later re-joining the pair to reveal that Austin was “completely fine”.

“I think he just blanked and then had a bit of a panic attack but he is okay,” she said.

“He’s completely fine. We had a good chat outside of the studio, so he is all fine.”

Former Matildas captain and goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri tweeted afterwards: “Mitch Austin – you have my support.

“Anxiety & panic attacks are part of mental health we need to de stigmatize [sic].”

Austin is expected to be involved when Victory host Sydney at Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening.

Sydney lost just once last season en route to the A-League Premiers’ Plate and Championship and will be aided by a weakened Victory side due to the international break.

Coach Kevin Muscat will be without Aussie pair James Troisi and Mark Milligan and New Zealand’s Kosta Barbarouses for the season opener.

Troisi and Milligan will represent the Socceroos in a crucial two-legged FIFA World Cup play-off against Syria over the next week.

Australia need to win that, and a clash against a North American side, if they are to qualify for football’s biggest party.