Abu Dhabi: Mahdi Ali, the UAE national football team coach, has drafted the under-23 team defender Mohammad Marzooq into his squad ahead of next week’s 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
The 27-year-old Al Shabab man has not been capped by the UAE senior side, but appeared in Ali’s under-23 team’s Olympic debut at London 2012.
His call-up provides cover for a rearguard weakened by the absence of the injured Mohammad Ahmad. The Al Ain right back will be sidelined for up to six months after sustaining a serious knee injury in the home game against Australia earlier this month.
Ali last week named a 23-man squad for the Group B games at home to Thailand on October 6 and away to Saudi Arabia five days later.
Sixteen UAE players began a three-day training stint in Dubai on Monday.
The seven Al Ain players in the squad were absent given that they have been preparing for Tuesday’s AFC Champions League semi-final first leg at home to El Jaish.
They will rejoin their teammates on Thursday when the Whites move their training to Abu Dhabi.
The Ah Ahli goalkeeper, Majid Nasser, was the most notable call-up last week. He missed this month’s qualifiers against Japan and Australia with a wrist injury. Al Ain’s Saeed Al Kathiri, Al Nasr’s Tariq Ahmad and Bani Yas’s Haboush Saleh have also been recalled.
The UAE, ranked 66th in the world by Fifa, began the third and final qualification phase with a shock 2-1 victory in Japan at the start of this month, before suffering a 1-0 defeat to Australia in Abu Dhabi five days later.
This has left them fourth in Group B.
The two top teams automatically qualify for the 2018 World Cup, while the third-placed side go into a play-off against the third-placed side from Group A. The winner then meets a Concacaf nation to decide who secures a spot in Russia. The UAE have participated at a World Cup only once before, at Italia 1990.
