With the Philippine Football Federation also focused on the World Cup Qualifiers, some of the country’s top Under-23 players could miss the Southeast Asian Games in Singapore next month.
The likes of Mark Hartmann, OJ Porteria, Daisuke Sato and Amani Aguinaldo all made the SEA Games age cutoff, but with coach Thomas Dooley expected to include them in the Azkals pool, they were left out of the SEA Games training camp squad.
The first game of World Cup Qualifying against Bahrain is slated on June 11, which is in conflict with the SEA Games schedule.
“The national team comes first,” said Philippine Football Federation general secretary Ed Gastanes said.
Azkals manager Dan Palami is targeting a May 28 start to training camp for the Azkals, who will be beefed up this time by several new recruits like Iain Ramsay, Luke Woodland, Stephen Palla and Kevin Ingresso.