Gold Coast United captain Jason Culina has been ruled out of Australia's Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait next month after suffering a knee injury in the Boxing Day win over Brisbane Roar.
The midfielder played a key role in Gold Coast's empathic 5-1 win, but will undergo further tests next week and will not make the trip to Kuwait City on January 6.
Australia coach Pim Verbeek has added Central Coast Mariners midfielder Dean Heffernan to his squad.
Culina said: "I didn't cop a knock, but twisted the knee towards the end. We'll have to get it looked at by the doctor and the physio, but it doesn't feel too good at the moment.
"For the last two minutes I stuck to the sidelines and tried not to run too much because we couldn't make any more subs.
"I'm struggling to walk, I'm just limping around so I'll have to talk to the doctors and physio and see what they come up with, because it doesn't feel too good."
Heffernan made his Socceroos debut in the goalless draw with Indonesia in January and was an unused substitute for March's defeat by Kuwait in Canberra.
"Obviously it's a massive honour to be called up, and the squad is full of quality players," said Heffernan. "I'll be going in just really keen to show Pim what I can offer and put myself in the best position I can to get some game time."
There was another blow for Gold Coast United as left-back Adama Traore suffered a suspected broken ankle in the Brisbane Roar victory and is set to join Culina on the sidelines.
"It looks like Adama has broken his ankle, so it will be eight weeks," United coach Miron Bleiberg said. "No-one touched him, he rolled his ankle, but according to the doctor it is a broken bone because he couldn't move the ankle after he did it, so the ambulance took him to hospital after the game."
