Tom Rogic is unlikely to play any more international football this season as a result of the Coronavirus.
At the end of this month Australia are scheduled to host Kuwait then travel to Nepal for World Cup qualifiers.
With the Coronavirus originating in China the Asian game has suffered most with FIFA taking action this morning.
In mid-morning they announced that the March and June qualifiers were being postponed- but left the door open for the associations to go ahead with fixtures if mutually agreed. With the bulk of the Australian squad based in Europe it is unlikely that they will release players for round the world travel.
Following consultation with Asia’s member associations, FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have agreed to postpone the upcoming Asian qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ as follows:
- Matches originally scheduled to take place during the international window of 23-31 March 2020 and 1-9 June 2020 are postponed to later dates
- FIFA and the AFC will discuss further details of the postponed matches
However, in order to support the member associations concerned, and provided that the safety of all individuals involved meets the required standards and that the member associations due to play each other mutually agree, the match(es) may still be played during the international windows of March or June 2020, but always subject to prior approval from both FIFA and the AFC.
In June Australia are scheduled to host Chinese Taipei and Jordan before competing in the Copa America which will be hosted by Colombia.
With no obvious gaps in the international calendar FIFA will have to try to rearrange postponed fixtures during the agreed international breaks next season.
