Australia striker Mitchell Duke will miss their final AFC Asian Cup group game against Uzbekistan with a hamstring injury, coach Graham Arnold said on Monday. Australia have already qualified for the last 16 and are guaranteed a spot in the top two of Group B with six points while Uzbekistan are two points behind in second.
“I’ll be honest, Mitch Duke is out of this game. Just a slight hamstring (injury) and with the short turnaround that we have,” Arnold told reporters. Duke is the squad’s top scorer in internationals (12) and Arnold said he hoped to see young hopefuls step up for Australia, who did not call up Melbourne City’s prolific striker Jamie Maclaren and experienced winger Mathew Leckie.
“Since I’ve first been in the job in 2018, I coached the Olympic team as well, I had to develop players to strengthen the squad. Probably nothing has really changed too much today, the only thing is we have more depth today,” he added.
