HANGZHOU, China -- The Socceroos have been pressed into an injury-enforced reshuffle of their striking ranks, with Adam Taggart and Kusini Yengi forced to withdraw from Tony Popovic's squad and veteran Mitch Duke drafted in as reinforcement heading into Tuesday's crucial FIFA World Cup qualifier against China.
Neither Taggart nor Yengi travelled with the group that left Sydney on a charter bound for Hangzhou on Friday, instead flying out to re-join club sides Perth Glory and Portsmouth. Only needing to make the short jump across the Sea of Japan from club side Machida Zelvia, Duke linked up with the team when they landed on Saturday morning.
The injured duo are the latest in a string of players that Socceroo boss Tony Popovic has been forced to go without this window, joining the likes of Riley McGree, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, and Connor Metcalfe on the shelf.
Tapping him to start in Thursday evening's 5-1 win over Indonesia and rewarded when he provided a key assist for Nishan Velupillay's goal that made it 2-0, Popovic revealed postgame that Taggart had been taken off at halftime due to a groin problem.
Yengi, meanwhile, picked up a complaint at the Friday training session the Socceroos staged for players who didn't feature against Indonesia.
ESPN understands their injuries aren't considered serious but given that neither would have been considered for selection, the duo returning to their clubs and Duke coming in was determined to be the best course of action.
It marks another frustrating blow for Yengi, whose attempts to establish himself as a first-choice option for both the national team and Portsmouth have been consistently hampered by injury.
The 26-year-old had linked up with the Socceroos having only made three appearances for John Mousinho's Pompey since returning from a three-month layoff that resulted from a ligament injury in Australia's 2-2 draw with Bahrain last November.
Duke, for his part, was one of the notable omissions from the initial 26-player squad named last week, having established himself as a trusted regular under Graham Arnold and starting the first three games of Popovic's tenure.
The industrious frontman, however, has featured just once for Machida across their opening six games of the J1 League season, his lone minutes coming when he started and played 45 minutes in a 1-0 loss to Tokyo Verdy on Feb. 26.
He joins Brandon Borrello as a natural striking option against China, while wingers Velupillay, Martin Boyle, and Marco Tilio also have experience centrally.
The Socceroos will undergo a light training session on Saturday evening as they turn their focus to their clash with China at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center.
Now on 10 points after their heavy win over Indonesia and possessing a healthy goal difference of +5, Popovic's side enter the fixture well-placed in their efforts to qualify for 2026: occupying one of two automatic qualification slots in Group C and a point clear of third-placed Saudi Arabia -- who will travel to face an already qualified Japan in Saitama.
Though a win over China wouldn't see the Socceroos join the Samurai Blue in mathematically sealing a place in North America, it would at least soothe some level of nerves by all but ensuring they will not finish as one of Group C's bottom two sides regardless of the results in their final fixtures against Japan and Saudi Arabia.
The nations that occupy the bottom two slots in the three groups contesting the third phase of Asian Qualifiers will see their qualification campaigns end, while those in third and fourth will move into a new phase of games.