AAP Soccer

Socceroos striker axed, recalled in eight-day stretch

By AAP Newswire

Mar 22, 2025

Axed striker Mitchell Duke has been rushed back into the Socceroos' squad as an injury replacement.

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Duke was a regular during Graham Arnold's time in charge then started in the first three games of Tony Popovic's tenure.

The 34-year-old was arguably the most notable omission in the group named last week for a pair of crucial World Cup qualifiers, against Indonesia and China.

But the Japan-based veteran has earned a recall for Tuesday night's game after Adam Taggart and Kusini Yengi both failed to make the trip to Hangzhou.

Football Australia released a statement on Saturday night, confirming Duke's recall and that Taggart and Yengi were injury-enforced omissions.

The Socceroos crushed Indonesia 5-1 in Sydney on Thursday, marking the most emphatic victory of the Popovic era.

Australia (10 points) are second in their congested qualification group, one point above Saudi Arabia, who beat China 1-0 on Friday morning (AEDT), with the top two advancing directly to the World Cup.

Third and fourth will then enter another play-off stage to try and reach the 2026 finals co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.