Scott McDonald's World Cup ambitions hang in the balance after the Celtic striker was left out of the Socceroos squad for upcoming Asian Cup qualifier against Oman because coach Pim Verbeek would prefer to assess his other striking options.
With a cloud over the fitness of Josh Kennedy, who was included in the squad, the non-selection of McDonald is the biggest indication yet that Verbeek has been not impressed with the diminutive marksman's form at international level where he has now played 15 games and is yet to score a goal.
Verbeek said that he feels he has enough strikers available for selection and if Kennedy doesn't play he is likely to call-up a player from the A-League, or possibly Dutch-based striker Nikita Rukavytsya.
"Josh Kennedy is struggling with his back. We have to wait for the weekend to see what is going on with him. Most of the players are still playing Thursday in Europe and on the weekend with their clubs. We still have some decisions to make," he said.
"With Scott McDonald, for the moment I have enough strikers available. If I lose Josh for this game. I will probably take another player. We don't have another player like Josh Kennedy, that's clear, so maybe we have to look and find a different player."
"Scott is a different type of player to Josh," he said. "There's some players doing well in the A-League at the moment. They are on the list."
Verbeek, who also included Bruce Djite and Mile Sterjovski in his squad, said Archie Thompson, Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge were the next in line should Kennedy fail to come up, while Rukavytsya is also on the list.
"We all know that Archie is doing well with his club. We know Alex Brosque is doing well. I'm happy to hear and see that Mark Bridge is doing what he promised to do two years ago and start to play good football," he said. "I saw (Joel) Porter, he's a very interesting player also."
"Rukavytsya is doing well here in the Netherlands. We have some options. It's getting better and better."
Sterjovski, who Verbeek says is a more versatile player, has been preferred to McDonald, having impressed with his form with Perth Glory.
"Mile was already on the list for the Oman home game, but he got injured. Mile is a player who is versatile, who plays from the left, from the right and in a striker position. If you look through the list, we need players like that. Mile was always an interesting player. We are giving him a chance."
While he admits he is still sorting his striking options out ahead of next year's World Cup, Verbeek denied he was concerned that Australia was becoming too reliant on Everton's Tim Cahill to score goals in matches.
"Timmy is an attacking player, his qualities are scoring goals, that's his job and that's what he has to do," he said. "Every player has his task. I'm very happy with Timmy, but I'm sure some other players can score goals."
The player missing from the usual starting XI is Vince Grella, who Verbeek confirmed is still struggling with the groin injury he suffered when playing against the Dutch in Sydney in October.
In a boost, Mark Bresciano comes back in after missing the Oman and Dutch game, but Verbeek won't guarantee