SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea are still holding out hope for the return of injured Premier League duo Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon and Syria, head coach Paulo Bento said on Friday (Jan 14).
Tottenham Hotspur's Son picked up a muscle strain in their semi-final first-leg League Cup defeat at Chelsea on Jan 5, while Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Hwang suffered a hamstring injury in December.
"We should wait as much as we can for the recovery of those players," Bento said. "Then we will take the final decision. They're two important players, players that have features to create many situations in the attacking phase. Let's wait and we'll take the final decision. If they aren't able to come, we need to find another solution."
The Koreans will play warmup games against Iceland on Jan 15 and Moldova six days later, before taking on Lebanon on Jan 27 and Syria on Feb 1 in the third round of Asian qualifying for Qatar 2022.
South Korea, who have appeared at every World Cup since 1986, are second in Group A of Asia's preliminaries, two points behind Iran. The top two in each group qualify automatically for the finals in Qatar.
