Nawaf Al-Abed was the highest profile casualty when Juan Antonio Pizzi named his 23-man Saudi Arabia squad for the World Cup in Russia.
Al-Abed is one of the Kingdom's most creative talents and the Green Falcons could well have done with his ability to unlock a defence, but Pizzi has decided the World Cup has come too soon in the 28-year-old's recovery from groin surgery earlier this year and has left him behind.
The news will come as a blow to the Al-Hilal playmaker, who has won 28 caps, but he has just not been able to get sufficient minutes under his belt following surgery at the hands of Dr. Gilles Reboul on Jan. 17. He has not played for Al-Hilal since coming off 14 minutes into their Saudi Pro League game with Ettifaq on Jan. 8 and has only played 22 minutes under Pizzi — and that was on Sunday night against Peru.
From the 28-man squad he named for the training camp in Austria and friendlies against Italy and Peru, Pizzi has also dropped goalkeeper Assaf Al-Qarni, defenders Mohammed Jahfali, Saeed Al-Muwallad and midfielder Mohammed Al-Kuwaikbi.
The Argentine coach has selected ten players from back-to-back Saudi Pro League champions Al-Hilal and named a further seven from Al-Ahli, who won the title in 2016 and finished runners-up in last season.
Pizzi has packed the midfield, taking 11 players in a sure sign he will string five men across the middle of the park and play only one in attack. He has opted to take just two strikers, Mohammed Al-Sahlawi and Mohannad Assiri, and will need Salem Al-Dawsari, Fahad Al-Muwallad and Yahya Al-Shehri to chip in with assists and goals from midfield if the Green Falcons are to stand a chance of getting out of the group. They play Russia first before games against Uruguay and Egypt. Before then, however, they face the daunting prospect of facing world champions Germany in Leverkusen on Friday. The last time the two nations met, in June 2002, Germany won 8-0.
Saudi Arabia's World Cup squad:
Goalkeepers: Yasser Al-Mosaileem, Abdullah Al-Mayouf, Mohammed Al-Owais
Defenders: Osama Hawsawi, Motaz Hawsawi, Omar Hawsawi, Yasser Al-Shahrani, Mansour Al-Harbi, Mohammed Al-Burayk, Ali Al-Bulayhi
Midfielders: Abdullah Otayf, Taisir Al-Jassim, Hussein Al-Moqahwi, Salman Al-Faraj, Salem Al-Dawsari, Fahad Al-Muwallad, Yahya Al-Shehri, Abdulmalik Al-Khaibari, Mohammed Kanno, Abdulla Al-Khaibari, Hattan Bahebri
Strikers: Mohammed Al-Sahlawi, Mohannad Assiri