A fractured thumb ruled the Al Ahli star out of September’s win in Japan and loss to Australia as the third round of qualifying began.

He is joined in Mahdi Ali’s 23- man squad by Al Ain striker Saeed Al Kathiri, Al Nasr midfielder Tariq Ahmed and Bani Yas winger Haboush Saleh for the games against Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

FIXTURES

October 6 – 20:00 UAE v Thailand

October 11 – 21:45 Saudi Arabia v UAE

UAE SQUAD

Majed Nasser, Abdulaziz Haikal, Abdulaziz Sanqour, Walid Abbas, Khamis Esmail, Habib Fardan, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Al Ahli), Khalid Essa, Mohanad Salem, Ismail Ahmed, Mohammed Fayez, Omar Abdulrahman, Amer Abdulrahman, Saeed Al Kathiri (Al Ain), Ali Khaseif, Mohammed Fawzi, Ali Mabkhout (Al Jazira), Hamdan Al Kamali (Al Wahda), Salem Saleh, Tariq Ahmed (Al Nasr), Hassan Ibrahim (Al Shabab),
Haboush Saleh (Bani Yas).