Sports

Mooy named in Asian Cup squad despite knee injury

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has named his 23-man squad for next month's Asian Cup defence in the United Arab Emirates, including injured midfielder Aaron Mooy.

Asian Cup 2019: Group B

Australia
Syria
Jordan
Palestine

Midfield maestro Mooy was named despite the Huddersfield Town star suffering a knee injury that his English Premier League club confirmed would keep him out for three months.

But 41-time capped striker Tomi Juric has been dropped, with the 27-year-old having only played eight games for his Swiss club FC Luzern this season.

Mooy will be assessed separately by the FFA's senior physiotherapist Phil Coles in the UK on Friday, and despite the "fantastic" communication between the FFA and Huddersfield Town, Arnold is still hopeful that his star midfielder will be fit to play.

"The most important thing is Aaron. He wants to go to the Asian Cup and he wanted the second opinion," Arnold said.

"I expect Aaron to be there.

"He believes he will be ready and so do we."

Australia has until six hours before their first match of the tournament to replace Mooy, or any other player in the squad, should they suffer an injury.

All but one of the squad members have been a part of camps or matches since September, with 23-year-old Perth Glory flyer Chris Ikonomidis the exception.

Arnold explained that Ikonomidis's performances in the A-League for Perth Glory, for whom he scored five goals and made two assists this season from eight matches, made his inclusion a no-brainer.

"Chris has made a great start to his time at Perth Glory under Tony Popovic and it has been his form in the A-League that has sealed his place in the squad," Arnold said.

"Chris will add pace and energy to our attack, which is the consistent feature of the players that we have picked in the Socceroos' attack for this tournament."

Reigning champions Australia face Syria, Joran and Palestine in Group B, with its opening match taking place against Jordan in Abu Dhabi on January 5.

This Asian Cup campaign will be Arnold's second at the helm of the Socceroos, after the former Sydney FC boss lead the team to the quarterfinals of the 2007 tournament in what was their first appearance since switching to the Asian confederation in 2006.

Despite that tournament not going to plan, Arnold refused to dwell on his experiences, saying he had learned from his experiences.

"No, in 2007 I had curly hair, a moustache … it was completely different," Arnold joked with reporters.

"That tournament was the best and biggest lesson I've ever learned."

"I am a person who learns from my mistakes and all I can do is learn from my mistakes there and look forward."

Since then, the Socceroos have reached the final in both 2011 and 2015, winning the latter with a 2-1 extra time victory over South Korea in Sydney, and will now aim to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Japan did so in 2000/2004.

Socceroos squad

Mustafa Amini, Aziz Behich, Martin Boyle, Milos Degenek, Alex Gersback, Rhyan Grant, Chris Ikonomidis, Jackson Irvine, Matthew Jurman, Robbie Kruse, Mitchell Langerak (GK), Mathew Leckie, Massimo Luongo, Awer Mabil, Jamie Maclaren, Mark Milligan, Aaron Mooy, Andrew Nabbout, Josh Risdon, Tom Rogic, Mathew Ryan (GK), Trent Sainsbury, Daniel Vukovic (GK).

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