Injury likely to rule Iraqi Abbas out of Asian Cup

AFP, Sydney :

The chances of Iraqi midfielder Ali Abbas playing in next year’s Asian Cup look over after he suffered a suspected serious knee injury in Australia’s A-League this weekend.
Abbas, 28, who was recalled to the Iraqi national squad recently seven years after defecting to Australia, is expected to miss the rest of the A-League season after a heavy tackle in the opening minutes of Sydney FC’s derby against Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday.
“The news on Ali Abbas is terrible. It looks like ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and MCL (medial collateral ligament) injury,” Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold said.”I haven’t seen it (the challenge) on TV, so I would rather not comment but I was close to it and it looked terrible.”Ali is devastated. He got smashed twice in two minutes and no yellow card.”