Other surprise moves in Popovic’s extended 26-man squad include a first-time call-up for Melbourne Victory winger Nishan Velupillay, as well as his A-League teammates Daniel Arzani and Jason Geria, who all played under Popovic last season. Geria has not represented the Socceroos since 2016, but his selection could address one of Australia’s most glaring deficiencies at right-back, a position Arnold cycled through during his six-year reign as coach without much success.

While Arnold never gave Geria a chance, Popovic believes he deserved one.

“Obviously, I’ve got a history with them, I know them very well, but they’ve had a very good, long [Australia] cup run, so they’ve played regularly. They’re playing well,” Popovic said. “There are some areas on the pitch that we have some unfortunate injuries, and it creates opportunities for players.”

Eight players from Arnold’s final Socceroos squad have been cast aside: the injured Alessando Circati, who hurt his ACL at training with Serie A club Parma last week, plus Martin Boyle, Awer Mabil, Josh Nisbet, Cameron Devlin, Adam Taggart and John Iredale, who were all omitted. Portsmouth striker Kusini Yengi, who was replaced in that squad by Iredale due to suspension, is also unavailable due to injury.

The Socceroos face China at Adelaide Oval on Thursday, needing all three points to keep alive their hopes of direct qualification for the World Cup. Five days later, they take on Group C leaders Japan in Saitama; Australia has not beaten the Samurai Blue in their past nine meetings, dating back to 2009.

The matches will be Popovic’s first in charge since being appointed as the replacement for Arnold, who quit after Australia’s shocking 1-0 defeat to Bahrain on the Gold Coast last month and a 0-0 draw with Indonesia in Jakarta.

‘I’ll be worried if I have to sell to a player a reason to play for Socceroos. I’ll never do it’

Socceroos coach Tony Popovic

Popovic’s biggest immediate challenge will be re-energising the Socceroos and addressing their long-standing issues with creativity in the final third, particularly against teams who sit back in numbers and force them to be the ball-dominant team, as China is expected to do. The returns of Luongo, Riley McGree, Ajdin Hrustic and Jordy Bos, the latter three who also missed the last window due to injury, should help.

“I think there are a lot of things in play in those two performances, but I’m sure there will be a change now when they come in, and I’m sure the players themselves, the quality they have, the careers they’ve had, they’ll be hurting about those two performances and it can happen,” Popovic said of the Socceroos’ last two outings.

“We haven’t often seen Australia in recent years as a group play so poorly over two games. You can have individuals, it happens, they have an off day, but Australia has predominantly been able to cover those cracks - but these two matches, it was pretty much poor from everyone.

“I’m sure they’ll be OK, and they’ll be ready to come into camp and play better.”

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Meanwhile, sources speaking on the condition of anonymity as they aren’t authorised to speak publicly have told this masthead that Japan-based goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak, who is set to move back to the A-League this January with his former club Melbourne Victory, was also approached about the possibility of playing for the Socceroos again but politely declined.

Langerak, 36, has been one of the most in-form Australian custodians over the past five years but was not considered under Arnold and eventually retired from international duty, citing the toll COVID-19 restrictions and isolation periods were having on his young family. He was called up just before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but wasn’t named in Arnold’s squad for the tournament and hasn’t been involved since.