Australia's hopes of reaching a fifth-straight World Cup have been dealt a huge blow, with star midfielder Tom Rogic withdrawing from the Socceroos squad.

The 29-year-old is without a club after leaving Celtic, despite having guided the Scottish giants to a 10th league title in the past 11 seasons.

He cited personal reasons for his withdrawal.

The move leaves coach Graham Arnold without one of his main attacking weapons heading into next week's must-win Asian play-off against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Qatar.

A victory in the June 8 clash in Doha would set up a game against Peru the following week for a spot in November's Qatar-based men's World Cup.

"My focus must now be on the players we have here in Qatar," Arnold said.

"We have selected an extended squad of quality players and I believe that we will achieve something special for Australia over the next two weeks."

Socceroos officials will not call up a replacement for Rogic, instead reducing the squad for the upcoming fixtures to 28 players, even though the team has struggled to break down structured defences due to a lack of creative attacking midfielders.

Rogic's withdrawal follows him and several other leading players being unavailable for the most recent Socceroos camp in March due to a mixture of COVID-19, injury, and personal reasons.

Missing several big names, the Socceroos suffered back-to-back defeats to Japan and Saudi Arabia in that window to miss out on automatic qualification and be forced into the play-offs.

The remainder of the Australian squad is assembling in Doha ahead of the side facing Jordan in a friendly match on Thursday morning.

Arnold said he would use the warm-up fixture to give game time to players who had not featured in recent weeks as he looked to sharpen up his squad ahead of the play-offs.

The UAE, meanwhile, finalised its preparations with a 1-1 draw against African nation Gambia in Dubai on Monday.

AAP