Doha: Muhammed Muntari will miss the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup as the Qatar Football Association (QFA) on Tuesday named the final 23-man Al Annabi squad for the upcoming tournament to be held in Basra, Iraq.
QFA announced that Muntari, who scored Qatar’s only goal at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, will miss the January 6 to 19 event after suffering a knee injury during training.
The Al Duhail player was earlier named in the revamped 27-player preliminary squad which excluded senior players – Al Haydos , Akram Afif, Almoez Ali, Abdulaziz Hatem, Karim Boudiaf, Abdelkarim Hassan, Boualam Khoukhi, Bassam Al Rawi, Saad Al Sheeb and Pedro Miguel.
Asian champions Qatar will open their campaign against Kuwait on January 7 before meeting defending champions Bahrain on January 10.
The three-time champions will play their last Group B match against the UAE on January 13.
Hosts Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Oman are in Group A.
Qatar will be coached by Portuguese Bruno Pinheiro, who replaced Spaniard Felix Sanchez, at the Gulf Cup.
Meanwhile, the organising committee of the tournament had earlier announced complete readiness to host the event which will take place at Basra International and Al Mina stadiums.
Qatar Squad:
Meshaal Barsham, Mahmoud Abu Nada, Shehab El Laithi
Hashim Ali, Yousuf Abdurisag, Muhammad Waad, Moustafa Tarek, Tarek Salman, Diab Haroun, Emad Mohammed, Ismaeel Mohammed, Ali Asad, Salem Al Hajri, Amro Siraj, Homam Al Amin, Tamim Mansour, Naif Al Hadhrami, Assim Madibo, Jassim Jaber, Hazem Ahmed, Khaled Muneer, Ahmed Fadel, Ahmed Alaa
