Ismail Matar has been recalled and Omar Abdulrahman included in coach Mahdi Ali’s 24-player squad for the Gulf Cup.
Matar was man of the tournament when they won the biennial championship for the first time in 2007 as hosts, but was on the bench when they regained the title in Bahrain in 2013.
The Al Wahda forward has played only two games for his club this season, coming off the bench both times.
His inclusion is not a surprise, though, and he will also wear the captain’s armband whenever he is on the pitch.
Abdulrahman has not been in action since injuring a knee a month ago, and they were both absent for the recent friendlies against Australia and Uzbekistan at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium on October 10 and 14.
Amer Omar, the Al Wahda midfielder, and Yousuf Saeed, the Sharjah forward, both win their first international caps.
Omar, 23, has been a regular starter for his club and has been in good form, scoring four times in seven league games.
Saeed, 20, is selected ahead of Saeed Al Kathiri, who captained the UAE at the Asian Games.
The notable absentee is the Wahda centre-back Hamdan Al Kamali, who has been ruled out for six weeks after injuring a knee in the friendly against Uzbekistan.
Al Ain and Al Ali have a significant combined presence of 15 players, while Al Jazira have three, Wahda and Sharjah two apiece and one each from Baniyas and Al Nasr.
The UAE are the defending champions and are drawn in Group B along with Iraq, Kuwait and Oman, who they play in their opener on November 14. Group A is made up of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Bahrain.
The team will regroup in Dubai on the night after the AGL Round 8 matches and head to Daman for a two-week camp.
They will play two friendly matches, against Lebanon on November 6 and the other yet to be announced.
UAE team for the Gulf Cup
Abdulaziz Haikal, Abdulaziz Sanqour, Walid Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil, Majid Hasan, Habib Fardan (Al Ahli), Amir Abdulrahman (Baniyas), Ali Kasheif, Khamis Ismail, Ali Mabkhout (Al Jazira), Khalid Essa, Ismail Ahmed, Mohammed Ahmed Gharib, Mohammed Fawzi, Muhanad Salem Al Enazi, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Abdulrahman, Rashid Essa (Al Ain), Amer Omar, Ismail Matar (Al Wahda), Mohammed Yousuf, Yousuf Saeed (Sharjah), Ali Al Amri (Al Nasr).
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