While Harry Kewell, Mark Bresciano, Vince Grella and Carl Valeri will all be missing for the Socceroos in tonight's World Cup qualifier against Qatar in Brisbane, Everton midfielder Cahill is a certain starter after being sidelined for six months with a foot injury.

And national coach Verbeek could not be happier.

He said: "We know how important he is because he always scores goals.

"Also if I'm a defender and I have to play against Timmy Cahill, I'm sure that I will have a difficult night.

"So he will impress the opponent, because they know how good he is, they know that he will always score goals.

"For our team it's good to have players like that in the team, because you know he will always score a goal and that's good."

Verbeek admitted the injury and suspension-enforced omissions headed by Kewell would be damaging, but was confident his side was able to overcome them.

He said: "In international football it will always be the same, we will never have a full squad.

"It's nice to have Harry Kewell in the group, more than nice, but if you don't have him, then you need the discipline to go on with other players."

The Dutchman was in no doubt that his playing squad had depth across the board to cover the missing midfielders.

"It's a pity you can only start with 11 players, because if you saw the games we played Saturday on the Gold Coast, you'd have seen two teams, that means 22 players, and all 22 were doing a good job.

"So I have more than enough possibilities to select players for the team, that's good.

"I don't look back to see the players I don't have, I'm looking for the players that I do have and I have enough players at the moment," said Verbeek.