(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman will be led by Ahmed al Muhaijri in the absence of its experienced skipper Hassan al Ghilani in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifier against Jordan at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Friday.
Coach Paul Le Guen's boys have already secured a third appearance at the tournament after qualifying with two games to spare.
Oman beat Syria 1-0 in Tehran, Iran on November 19 for its third win in four games to collect ten points and qualify for the finals, which will be played in Australia next year.
Ghilani will sit out of Friday's game through suspension, having picked up a second yellow card during the win against Syria.
Oman will also miss the services of its No 1 keeper Ali al Habsi, who won't be released by English Championship side Wigan since Friday's match is not listed on the FIFA international match calendar. Faiz al Rushaidi is set to step in for Habsi.
For international fixtures on FIFA matchdays, all clubs are bound to release their players for national team duty.
Friday's Oman-Jordan game was initially scheduled for November 15, which was a FIFA matchday. But it was postponed due to Jordan's participation in the playoffs for the 2014 World Cup, which it eventually lost to Uruguay.
Oman's centre-forward pair of Amad al Hosni and Ismail al Ajmi, and right-winger Hussain al Hadhri have also not been released by their respective clubs for Friday's match. Hosni plays for Saudi club Al Nassr, Jabri is with Al Nasr of Kuwait and Hadhri plays for Saudi side Al Raed.
Mohammed al Alawi, the Oman team manager, told Muscat Daily, ''The Oman Football Association (OFA) tried its best to get the clubs to release our national players for this match. But since it is not being played on a FIFA matchday, we have to respect the clubs' decision [not to release our players for national team duty].
''Although we are without some players, we have been able to get centreback Abdul Salam al Mukhaini released from his UAE club, Baniya SC. We have a good back-up team and would like to continue our impressive run in this competition.''
Oman will host Singapore on March 5 for its final qualifier.
Le Guen believes that a depleted team doesn't mean he is not aiming for a positive result. ''I am proud that we qualified for the Asian Cup early,'' the Oman coach told the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) website. ''We were very serious in each qualifier and we worked hard. Today, we are where we wanted to be. We played well in all the matches and we didn't concede any goals [throughout the qualifiers so far].''
The Frenchman added, ''I am proud of our achievement, but we are not done yet. Our aim is to end up on top of our group and continue to go further as this is not enough for us. We want to prove that this is only the first step; we want to do well in Austral
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