Subway Olyroos’ Head Coach, Tony Vidmar has made two changes to his 23-man squad for the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024™.
Marco Tilio (Melbourne City FC) has been ruled out due to a quad injury and will be replaced by Keegan Jelacic (Brisbane Roar FC).
Louis D’Arrigo (Lechia Gdansk) has now been made unavailable by his club and will be replaced by Lucas Mauragis (Newcastle Jets FC).
Vidmar expressed his disappointment at losing D’Arrigo on the eve of the tournament.
“We had been in discussions with Lechia for some time about Louis’ availability for this tournament, unfortunately they’ve decided that he’s required to remain in Poland,” Vidmar said.
“We understand and respect the position of the club, and I’ve made my frustration at the timing of this tournament, and its impact on player availability known for several months.
“That being said, it’s certainly disappointing to have things change like this at the last minute, when all our preparation had been done on the proviso Louis would be available,” Vidmar said.
Vidmar said it was a tough decision to leave Mauragis out originally and he was pleased to be bringing the defender into his squad.
“I’m very happy for Lucas, he’s been excellent for us over the last 12 months and this call up is a great reward for that,” Vidmar concluded.
The Subway Olyroos squad assemble in Doha from Monday, 8 April to begin preparations for the tournament – which doubles as AFC Qualifiers for the Paris 2024™ Olympics – with their opening fixture on Monday, 15 April.
Australia has been drawn in Group A alongside Jordan (15 April), Indonesia (18 April) and Qatar (21 April).
The Subway Olyroos are one of 16 teams who have qualified for the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024™, should they finish in the top three they will automatically qualify for the Paris 2024™ Olympics as the AFC representatives, while the fourth-best team will play an AFC-CAF play-off match for the final qualification spot.
