Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan has been called up for South Korea’s final two matches in Asia’s World Cup preliminaries despite suffering a hip injury during his club side’s Premier League win over Everton on Sunday.
Hwang was replaced after 16 minutes of the 1-0 win over Frank Lampard’s side but was included as Paulo Bento announced a 25-man squad for games against Iran and the United Arab Emirates on March 24 and 29 respectively.
The 26-year-old was taken off after sustaining the injury in a clash with Everton’s Donny van de Beek having only recently returned to action following two months out with a hamstring problem.
That injury meant Hwang was not called up by South Korea for January’s matches against Lebanon and Syria. Bento’s team won both games to qualify for November’s World Cup finals in Qatar.
South Korea are currently second in Group A of Asia’s preliminaries, two points behind Iran, and Bento is targeting victory over Dragan Skocic’s side in an effort to finish the campaign on top of the standings.
“We can reach the first position in the table, so that should be our goal.” he said. “I think that is a good challenge for us.
“We reached the most important goal, that was to be qualified, but our ambition should be more than that.
“If you have the possibility to get the first position we should try in the next two games.”
South Korea, whose appearance in Qatar will be their 10th consecutive World Cup finals, host Iran in Seoul before travelling to Dubai to play the United Arab Emirates on March 29.
Squad
Goalkeepers: Kim Dong-jun, Kim Seung-gyu, Song Bum-keun, Jo Hyeon-woo
Defenders: Kwon Kyung-won, Kim Min-jae, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Jin-su, Kim Tae-hwan, Pak Min-gyu, Park Ji-su, Yoon Jong-gyu, Lee Jae-ik
Midfielders: Kwon Chang-hoon, Kim Jin-gyu, Na Sang-ho, Paik Seung-ho, Son Heung-min, Song Min-kyu, Lee Jae-sung, Jung Woo-young, Jeong Woo-yeong, Hwang Hee-chan
Forwards: Cho Gue-sung, Hwang Ui-jo
