Town pair Cameron Burgess and Massimo Luongo have been named in the Australia squad for their World Cup second round Asian qualifiers against Bangladesh and Palestine during the international break.
The Socceroos face the Bangladeshis in Melbourne on Thursday 16th November, then the Palestinians in Kuwait on Tuesday 21st November.
Burgess broke into the full Australia side for the first time in August when they drew 2-2 with Mexico in the US and has now won two caps, having also featured in the 1-0 loss to England at Wembley during the October international break.
Luongo won his first cap in more than four years last month when he featured in the 2-0 victory over New Zealand at Brentford last month, taking his total to 44. The Sydney-born schemer has also scored six international goals
The World Cup second round doubles as the qualification stage for the AFC Asian Cup 2027 in Saudi Arabia.
The Socceroos play Bangladesh, Lebanon and Palestine home and away in a round robin format between now and June 2024.
The group winners and runners-up qualify for the next stage of World Cup qualification and for the AFC Asian Cup finals.
Burgess and Luongo’s call into the squad increases the likelihood that they will be named in the Australia party for next year’s AFC Asian Cup, which takes place in Qatar from January 12th to February 10th and would see them miss a number of Town matches depending on their side’s progress.