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Al Shamrani ruled out for the Asian Cup

Xinhua, January 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

According to reports from the AFC Asian Cup's offical website, Saudi Arabia's star forward and captain Nassir Al Shamrani has been ruled out for the tournament due to injury.

Shamrani was the AFC Player of the Year for 2014, his unspecified injury was aggravated during a 2-0 friendly defeat to South Korea on January 4, and Al Nassr' s Ibrahim Ghaleb will be his backup.

Saudi Arabia will start its campaign in the AFC Asian Cup by fighting with China in Brisbane today, just few hours ago Saudi Arabia's coach Cosmin Olaroiu was hopeful his star striker' s injury wouldn' t be too serious, but he was disappointed at last.

"Al Shamrani is a very good player, a very important player to any team," Saudi Arabia's midfielder Saud Kariri said.

"But, if he plays or doesn't play, we have a good squad of 23 players and everybody is ready to give it his 100 percent." He added. Endi