Asian Cup 2019: 5 top stars who will be missed

The 17th edition of AFC Asian Cup is going to held between January 5 and February 1 at the United Arab Nations. Total of 24 teams are split up in 6 groups and the teams will compete against each other in the first round which is the group stages of this tournament.

South Korea were the inaugural champions of this competition, but have won only twice till date. Japan has lifted this accolade most numbers of times with four titles. The current Champions of this tournament is Australia who lifted the trophy in 2015.

With just a few days to go to the 2019 edition of AFC Asian Cup, the 24 participating teams have announced their final 23-man squads. As always, there were quite a few surprises with the squads.

In this piece, we shall look at the five key players who will be missing this tournament.

#5 Aaron Mooy (Australia)

Huddersfield Town midfielder Aaron Mooy has been left out of the squad because of medial ligament injury which he suffered in early November. He was hopeful that he would recover in time, but his rehabilitation took a much longer time than expected.

The midfielder has been an important player for both his club and country in recent times. It has been a tough time for his club as they sit in rock bottom of the Premier League and he is forced to sit on the sidelines and watch them.

The 28-year-old has played 39 times for Australia and has scored five goals in the process. He has not played in the Asian cup before but his reputation over the last three years has grown tremendously. Aaron Mooy was not a part of the 2018 Australian World Cup squad.

Aaron Mooy has the ability to control the game in the middle of the park and Australia will definitely miss him in the competition.