Dubai: Skipper Esmail Mattar will be the only senior member of the team to miss out as the UAE take on Italian Serie A side Udinese in the first of four friendlies during their European training sojourn on Thursday.
The UAE senior football squad is preparing for the defence of their Gulf Cup title when the tournament is held in Riyadh in November before they vie for the AFC Asian Cup in Australia in January.
Thursday’s friendly match will be held in Linz, Austria, with three more friendly games coming up against Norway (August 27); Lithuania (September 3) and Paraguay (September 7).
While most of the players participated in the training session at the team’s base in Austria, skipper Mattar flew out to Munich for rehabilitation of his injured knee.
The x-rays done in Austria revealed that Mattar’s injury required further attention and he will not be part of Mahdi Ali’s plans at least for the next few weeks. The coach has already called in Mohammad Jaber of Bani Yas as a possible replacement.
Interestingly, Mattar has taken part in the training camp of his club Al Wahda in Germany and played in many of their friendlies as well.
Coach Ali will be keen to test as many players as possible in the four friendlies so that he can gauge the extent of their readiness from the tactical, mental and physical point of view.
Al Ain players Khalid Eisa, Mohammad Ahmad, Muhanad Al Enazi, Esmail Ahmad, Mohammad Fawzi and Omar Abdul Rahman are expected to join the national squad on August 28, two days after their away clash against Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad in their AFC Champions League quarter-finals.
