The 26 players who will carry New Zealand’s hopes into June’s FIFA World Cup play-off against Costa Rica have been named by All Whites head coach Danny Hay.
They include Melbourne Victory’s Marco Rojas, who earns a recall, and Michael Boxall, who returns from injury, as well as players who formed the nucleus of national squads at the Oceania qualifying tournament and at the Tokyo Olympics.
Missing from the list through injury are midfielders Sarpreet Singh and Ryan Thomas.
Hay told the NZ Football website: “We know this is a massive moment for football in New Zealand and I believe these are the players that give us the best possible chance of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup later this year.”
New Zealand squad
Kosta Barbarouses (49 caps) Sydney FC, Australia
Joe Bell (8 caps) Brøndby IF, Denmark
Michael Boxall (36 caps) Minnesota United, USA
Liberato Cacace (8 caps) FC Empoli, Italy
Joe Champness (5 caps) Unattached
Francis de Vries (5 caps) IFK Värnamo, Sweden
Matthew Garbett (8 caps) Torino, Italy
Matthew Gould (0 caps) Altrincham FC, England
Alex Greive (4 caps) St Mirren, Scotland
Dane Ingham (10 caps) Newcastle Jets, Australia
Elijah Just (9 caps) FC Helsingør, Denmark
Niko Kirwan (6 caps) Calcio Padova, Italy
Clayton Lewis (18 caps) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Stefan Marinovic (29 caps) Hapoel Nof HaGalil, Israel
Callum McCowatt (8 caps) FC Helsingør, Denmark
Tim Payne (25 caps) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Nando Pijnaker (7 caps) Sligo Rovers, Ireland
Logan Rogerson (8 caps) FC Haka, Finland
Marco Rojas (42 caps) Melbourne Victory, Australia
Winston Reid (30 caps) Unattached
Oli Sail (2 caps) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Tommy Smith (47 caps) Colchester United, England
Marko Stamenic (6 caps) HB Køge, Denmark
Bill Tuiloma (31 caps) Portland Timbers, USA
Ben Waine (2 caps) Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Chris Wood (65 caps) Newcastle United, England
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