Tom Rogic makes shock withdrawal from Socceroos for must-win World Cup qualifiers

The 29-year-old from Canberra, who is without a club after leaving Celtic having guided the Scottish giants to a 10th league title in the past 11 seasons, cited personal reasons as his reason to withdraw.

The move leaves coach Graham Arnold without one of his main attacking weapons heading into next week's must-win Asian play-off against the United Arab Emirates in Qatar.

A victory in the June 8 (4am AEST) clash in Doha would set up a game against Peru the following week for a spot in November's World Cup.

"My focus must now be on the players we have here in Qatar," Arnold said.

"We have selected an extended squad of quality players and I believe that we will achieve something special for Australia over the next two weeks."

Rogic was fresh off winning the PFA's men's footballer of the year award here in Australia. Speculation has been growing about where the Canberran may play next, but his former agent doesn't believe the A-League is on his radar.

"I would like to see him have a few years in La Liga before heading home. I know Spanish football fans would love his flow," former Socceroo and agent Andy Bernal told The Canberra Times earlier this month.

"I believe the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) are wanting to bring back marquees like Tom so you never know, he may end up in Australia.

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"It was the end of the road at Celtic, a club he joined many years ago as a young man and won everything to be won domestically - 16 trophies in total," Bernal said.

"On top of that he has played in the Champions League and Europa League - boyhood dreams achieved. So a new challenge and new lifestyle would be the greatest factors for him leaving Celtic."

Socceroos officials will not be calling up a replacement for Rogic, reducing the squad for the upcoming fixtures to 28 players.

Rogic's withdrawal comes after he and several other leading players were all unavailable for a mixture of COVID-19, injury and personal reasons during the most recent Socceroos camp in March.

Missing several big names, the Socceroos suffered back-to-back defeats to Japan and Saudi Arabia in that window to miss out on automatic qualification and be forced into the play-offs.

The remainder of the Australian squad is assembling in Doha with the Socceroos to face Jordan in a friendly match on Thursday (4am AEST).

Arnold says he will be using the warm-up fixture to give gametime to players who haven't featured in recent weeks as he looks to sharpen up his squad ahead of the play-offs.

The UAE meanwhile finalised their preparations with a 1-1 draw against African nation Gambia in Dubai on Monday.

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