Seven changes made for Danish match

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has been forced to make at least seven changes to his initial squad for the Denmark clash on Wednesday morning (AEDT), to be played at Loftus Road in London.

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has been forced to make at least seven changes to his initial squad for the Denmark clash on Wednesday morning (AEDT), to be played at Loftus Road in London.

Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Craig Moore and Luke Wilkshire are all out injured; Michael Beauchamp has suffered a bout of food poisoning and could not travel, while Jason Culina-s and Mark Bresciano-s respective partners will give birth during the week and have been excused from making the trip.

Arnold has been forced to call in fringe squad members Jacob Burns, Jon McKain, Brad Jones and Shane Stefanutto into camp and will add one player from the five Qantas Under 23 overseas-based players that have called into camp this week. The Aussie coach also revealed that World Cup captain Mark Viduka is no certainty to play, despite playing a key role in Middlesbrough-s 1-1 with Arsenal on Saturday.

“There is still a question mark over Mark Viduka,” Arnold said. “He suffered a bit of a calf muscle (injury) in the last 10-15 minutes against Arsenal, but Mark-s in camp and says he is feeling fine.

“So we-ll have to see how he is feeling tomorrow.”

Despite the loss of so many key players, Arnold still remains confident the starting side he puts out is a very good one and will test the highly-ranked Danes.

"We'll still put out what I feel to be a good side," he said from the teams- base in London. "Obviously we-ll have to improvise, but it gives an opportunity for the younger players to show what they can do, with the Asian Cup in mind.

“I am expecting a very good performance, so its business as normal. We have set our own standards in the last 12 months on and off the field and I don-t expect anything less on Tuesday night.”

The biggest area of concern for Arnold is in defence, with only make-shift fullbacks Brett Emerton and Scott Chipperfield, still remaining from the World Cup squad.

“I will go with how we finished the Ghana game, with Michael Thwaite and Patrick Kisnorbo, who did very well,” he said, when quizzed on who might play in the centre of defence, given the absence of Neill, Moore and Beauchamp.

“As I have said before these are the type of guys we need to learn a lot about now and we need to fast track, because its an area of the field I-ve highlighted moving forward that we need to be strengthened in and it-s a great opportunity for them to show what they can do.”

While not revealing his starting side, one player that Arnold said will definitely start, depending on how he pulls up from the flight from Turkey, is Michael Petkovic. The 30-year old goalkeeper will be given his opportunity to showcase his form, which from all reports has been excellent with his club Sivasspor.

As part of the camp, Arnold will take a look at five players that could potentially play some role in the upcoming 2008 Olympic qualifiers that start next Wednesday with a two-match series against Chinese Taipei.

Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici, Neil Kilkenny (Birmingham City), Aaron Downes (Chesterfield), Nick Ward (QPR) and James Wesolowski (Leicester City) will vie for one place in the final squad for the Denmark match.

These five plus several other overseas-based players will come into the mix for the next round of matches, if Australia gets past Chinese Taipei.

The Denmark clash can be seen live on Fox Sports from 6.30am on Wednesday morning, while there will also be a full live play-by-play update of the match on www.footballaustralia.com.au