Australian coach Graham Arnold activated the emergency plan within the Iraqi national team after the match between Iraq and Bahrain in the first round of the Arab Cup Qatar 2025 saw three important players injured, a step reflecting the technical staff's keenness to maintain team stability before the upcoming match.

The match, held yesterday Wednesday at Stadium 974 and ending with Iraq's 2-1 victory, was heavily demanding physically on the players, as Ayman Hussein, Ali Jassim, and Akam Hashim sustained injuries of varying severity, all currently undergoing thorough medical examinations to determine the extent of damage and the possibility of their recovery before facing Sudan.

Sources indicated that the injuries are muscle strains, with different severity among the three players; Ayman Hussein suffers difficulty walking, while the injuries of Ali Jassim and Akam Hashim appear less severe.

Despite that, Arnold was keen to activate the emergency plan immediately to be ready to play the Sudan match from the first minute if necessary.

The coach also decided that the team's training sessions be limited to recovery aspects only, without any ball work or intensive running, to preserve the team's privacy and players' safety.

These training sessions aim to address the fatigue resulting from the Bahrain match, in which some players participated despite not being at their full physical readiness.

The focus of the next two days' training is to prepare substitutes for the upcoming phase, where it is expected that either Mohammed Jawad or Ammar Mohsen will be called upon in the attack line alongside Muhannad Ali, and Hussein Ali is a likely option for the left wing, while both Maitham Jabbar and Saad Natiq will have significant chances to cover any potential absences in defense.

Arnold is working on preparing the optimal lineup to face Sudan, making use of all available options, focusing on restoring balance between defense and attack and ensuring the continuation of the high performance the team showed against Bahrain, despite the pressures of injuries and physical fatigue.