One of football’s worst-kept secrets was confirmed this afternoon when the FFA announced that Alessandro Del Piero, Emile Heskey and Shinji would not line up for the A-League All Stars against Manchester United in a fortnight’s time.
After making strong impacts in their first season in the A-League, the trio were all picked by fans in the online selection process where fans voted for their All Star line-up.
FFA CEO David Gallop confirmed that none of the three marquee players would line up in the game.
“Alessandro, Shinji and Emile have turned on great performances and brought a huge global and national profile to the Hyundai A-League, so naturally the fans wanted to see them face Manchester United,” he said.
“But we respect the fact that their personal circumstances at this time mean the All Stars game arrives at a difficult period for them to manage a one-off appearance.”
The withdrawal of the trio now makes a total of six unavailable players from the initial 15-man squad after Marco Rojas (overseas transfer), Patrick Zwaanswijk (retirement) and Adama Traore (injury) already declared themselves unavailable.
All-Stars coach Ange Postecoglou is expected to name the full squad ahead of a week-long training camp beginning on July 13.
Already Thomas Broich (Brisbane Roar), Brett Emerton (Sydney FC), Michael Beauchamp, Mark Bridge, Ante Covic, Youssouf Hersi and Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Western Sydney Wanderers) have been confirmed in the side.
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