Al Ain's Moroccan international Soufianne Alloudi has passed a fitness test on the knee injury that kept him out for most of last season - but it remains to be seen if they will keep him in their squad for the new campaign. Alloudi has a three-year contract running up to 2011 which he signed with the nine-times UAE champions at the end of his one-year loan spell from the Moroccan club Raja Casablanca in 2007.
The club's board of directors have said they will unveil the foreign players they intend to keep tomorrow. Al Ain have been linked with the Argentine striker Lucas Barrios, 24, who plays for the Chilean club Colo Colo. And they are also in talks with the Chile international Alexis Sanchez, 20. Alloudi, 26, was sidelined in January following the injury he suffered in his country's African Cup of Nations opener with Namibia. He scored a hat-trick in the first 28 minutes in the 5-1 win and his loss was highlighted as one of the main reasons Morocco failed to qualify for the quarter-finals.
However, having proved his fitness ahead of Al Ain's three-week training camp in Switzerland and Spain, which starts on July 24, Alloudi's place in the squad is yet to be decided by the technical committee. There is also a question mark over last season's top scorer Andre Diaz, who is still to return to the club from a holiday in his native Brazil. Chile playmaker Jorge Valdivia will definitely spearhead Winfried Schaefer's team's Pro League and Asian Champions League assault next season.
apassela@thenational.ae
