Socceroos name Ikonomidis, Mooy as Juric dropped for Asian Cup

Sydney, December 20: Chris Ikonomidis was named in Australia's 23-man squad for the Asian Cup as Tomi Juric missed out, while Aaron Mooy was included despite a knee injury.

Ikonomidis, 23, has made a flying start to the A-League season, scoring five goals in eight games for Perth Glory.

A six-time Socceroo, Ikonomidis gets a place ahead of Juric, who has struggled for game time at Swiss club Luzern this season.

Ikonomidis is the only player in the squad not to have featured in either camps or matches under Socceroos coach Graham Arnold since September.

"Chris has made a great start to his time at Perth Glory under Tony Popovic and it has been his form in the Hyundai 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.

"We will play energetic, high-intensity football in the UAE, and the rapid attackers we have selected including Chris, Mathew [Leckie], Robbie [Kruse], Awer [Mabil], Martin [Boyle], Andrew [Nabbout], and Jamie [Maclaren] will enable us to implement our style."

This is our 23-player squad for the @afcasiancup 2019. #GoSocceroos

Full details: https://t.co/Hr8lELrwjO pic.twitter.com/94v70bS4DM

— Caltex Socceroos (@Socceroos) 20 December 2018

Australia will face Jordan, Palestine and Syria in Group B at the Asian Cup, which begins in January.

They were expected to be without Mooy, who was ruled out of the tournament by Premier League club Huddersfield Town earlier this month due to a knee injury.

However, the Socceroos named Mooy as Football Federation Australia (FFA) high performance coordinator – senior physiotherapist Phil Coles travels to United Kingdom to assess the star midfielder's injury.

Australia Squad:

Goalkeepers: Mitchell Langerak (Nagoya Grampus), Mathew Ryan (Brighton and Hove Albion), Danny Vukovic (Genk);

Defenders: Aziz Behich (PSV), Milos Degenek (Red Star Belgrade), Alex Gersbach (Rosenborg), Rhyan Grant (Sydney FC), Matthew Jurman (Al-Ittihad), Josh Risdon (Western Sydney Wanderers), Trent Sainsbury (PSV);

Midfielders: Mustafa Amini (Aarhus), Jackson Irvine (Hull City), Robbie Kruse (VfL Bochum), Mathew Leckie (Hertha Berlin), Massimo Luongo (QPR), Awer Mabil (Midtjylland), Mark Milligan (Hibernian), Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield Town), Tom Rogic (Celtic);

Forwards: Martin Boyle (Hibernian), Chris Ikonomidis (Perth Glory), Jamie Maclaren (Hibernian), Andrew Nabbout (Urawa Reds).