Australia Defender Alessandro Circati Out of World Cup Preliminaries

Alessandro Circati, Australia's 20-year-old football defender, will miss the rest of the World Cup preliminaries due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Circati, who debuted in 2022, is sidelined as the Socceroos sit in fifth place. Tony Popovic replaces Graham Arnold as new coach.

Australia's defender Alessandro Circati will be sidelined for the remainder of the third round of Asia's World Cup preliminaries due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament sustained during training on Friday, as announced by his Serie A club, Parma.

The 20-year-old had played in both of Australia's recent qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, although the Socceroos faced a loss to Bahrain and a draw with Indonesia. Circati, despite being Italy-born and eligible to represent Italy, opted to play for Australia, making his debut in 2022 under former coach Graham Arnold.

Currently, Australia ranks fifth in their group with only the top two teams advancing directly to the finals. The teams finishing third and fourth will enter another series of preliminaries starting next October. Following Arnold's unexpected resignation, former defender Tony Popovic was appointed as the new head coach on Monday.

(With inputs from agencies.)