Australia will be without one of their key players for their crunch World Cup qualifier against the UAE, with Tom Rogic pulling out of the squad due to personal reasons.
The attacking midfielder, who is leaving Celtic after nearly a decade at the Scottish champions, was considered a key part of the Socceroos’ attack for the upcoming matches.
Australia have a friendly against Kuwait on the weekend before a sudden-death game against the UAE next Wednesday morning. If they win that, they’ll play Peru for a spot in the World Cup.
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“My focus must now be on the players we have here in Qatar,” coach Graham Arnold said.
“We have selected an extended squad of quality players and I believe that we will achieve something special for Australia over the next two weeks.”
Rogic’s reasons for withdrawing aren’t known, with a statement from Football Australia not elaborating beyond ‘personal reasons’.
Should Australia qualify for Qatar, their group for the November/December tournament has already been settled, with 29 of the 32 nations already confirmed.
They will play France and Denmark, both of whom were opponents in the 2018 World Cup, as well as African qualifiers Tunisia.
But that seems a world away after a disappointing campaign so far. Australia began the final qualification stage brilliantly, but faltered down the stretch to finish well behind both Saudi Arabia and Japan, relegating them to the play-off route.
The match against UAE will kick off at 4am AEST on Wednesday, June 8.
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