Fawaz Ayed dribbles the ball.

KUWAIT CITY, May 31: The Kuwait national football team will kick off its training camp at 7:30 pm today at Ali Sabah Al-Salem Stadium, in preparation for two critical 2026 World Cup qualifying matches against Palestine and South Korea, scheduled for June 5 and 10, respectively.

Head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi has called up Al-Salmiya’s Fawaz Ayed to replace injured Al-Qadisiya player Abdulaziz Wadi, who sustained an injury during the semi-final of His Highness the Amir's Cup against Kuwait Club last Thursday.

Pizzi has named a 26-man squad for the upcoming fixtures, which includes:

Saud Al-Hoshan, Mishari Ghannam, Fahad Al-Hajri, Mohammed Daham, Reda Hani, Ahmed Al-Dhafiri, Ahmed Al-Zanki, Yousef Nasser, Khaled Al-Rashidi, Moaz Al-Dhafiri, Eid Al-Rashidi, Mubarak Al-Fenini, Jassim Al-Matar, Khaled Sabah, Rashid Al-Dosari, Suleiman Abdul-Ghafoor, Hassan Hamdan, Mohammed Khaled, Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi, Hussein Ashkanani, Yousef Majed, Moaz Al-Aseema, Mahdi Dashti, Hamad Harbi, and Abdulrahman Al-Rashidi.

Kuwait currently sits sixth in Group B with 5 points from eight matches, having drawn five. South Korea leads the group with 16 points, followed by Jordan (13), Iraq (12), Oman (10), and Palestine (6). To keep qualification hopes alive, Kuwait must win both upcoming matches and hope for Oman to drop points in the final two rounds.

By Khaled Al-Enezi

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff