Coach Pim Verbeek says Harry Kewell is in his plans for Australia's FIFA World Cup™ qualifier against China later this month but Mark Viduka is not.
The Socceroos, confident 3-0 winners over Qatar in their opening group match in Melbourne last month, are wary of the Chinese problems posed to them in the high altitude of the Kunming venue for the 26 March qualifier.
The Dutch coach has confirmed he will not be calling on Newcastle United striker Viduka, Australia's captain at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but may use Kewell, despite him playing reserve football at Liverpool.
Verbeek confirmed he would again select European-based players for the Kunming match, but those with the best aerobic capacity were most likely to make the starting XI.
Reports said Kewell's best hope seems to be on the substitutes bench, but Viduka, also struggling to break into the first team at Newcastle United, will not be required.
"I have made an appointment to see Mark in April, but we don't need him for a game like this," Verbeek told Friday's The Sydney Morning Herald.
Kewell, for so long the talisman of Australian football whose goal against Croatia in Stuttgart got the Socceroos through to the second round of the last FIFA World Cup, is in Verbeek's plans.
Verbeek said he is not concerned about Kewell's lack of first-team football at Anfield after not calling on him for the Qatar game.
"No, Harry is playing in every second reserve team game, so he is playing more than he did a few months ago," he said.
"So I say it again. Second-team football at Liverpool is still a higher standard than the (Australian) A-League."
Verbeek said the altitude (1900 metres) and smog of Kunming would make the China match a much tougher proposition than Qatar.
He said he has some knowledge of the difficulties in playing at altitude after taking Korea Republic to the capital of Yemen, Sana'a, last year.
"It will be difficult for sure, we will have to play with our brain and not our heart," he said.
"In Yemen it was exactly the same circumstances, 1900m. You get tired sooner. So you have to save energy for the whole game, you have to know when to go (forward) so you can last 90 minutes.
"So we have to find out how fit the players are, and what they can do. I have to think about that, to find the best tactics and the best players who can do that. But the problem is nobody has experience of this altitude.
"The second problem is with the ball. It's going to float, and that's something that is very difficult. Physically, mentally, you can try to prepare players."
The bulk of the European-based players are set to arrive in Kunming just 48 hours before the match, while Dutch-based trio Brett Holman, Jason Culina and Luke Wilkshire are likely to arrive the day before the game.
That gamble paid off against Qatar when Australia raced to a match-winning lead by half-time, but Verbeek admitted: "What we've learnt is that it's difficult to play 90 minutes like the way we played the first half against Qatar."