The in-form 30-year-old suffered a groin strain playing for Turkish giants Galatasaray last week and was a notable omission from the Dutchman's 28-man squad announced on Tuesday.

While the coach concedes Kewell is a 10 per cent chance at best of taking part in the crucial clash, he is prepared to give the former Leeds and Liverpool star until Thursday before a final decision is made.

Verbeek said: "Harry has special qualities of course and Harry's a great player so if there's any chance that he can do a job for us on Wednesday I will take the chance, (there's) no doubt about that.

"But then it must be reasonable for him to fly over and to be ready and to be fit and not that he comes here then he has to go back and start (recovering from) injury again."

"It's a tough decision … in the end it will be my decision to pick him yes or no."

While Verbeek will give his star veteran every opportunity to take part if fit, he insists he has ample artillery at his disposal if needed.

"It's a loss (if Kewell is absent) but on the other hand we have Timmy (Cahill), we have Scott (McDonald), we have Josh Kennedy - we have so many good players that we can still have a great game."

Meanwhile, Verbeek concedes the arrival of Qatar's new coach Bruno Metsu following Jorge Fossati's recent departure won't make life any easier for the Socceroos.

He said: "That doesn't make it easier for us because we had all kinds of reports and analysis and we know the previous games and we know how they liked to play with their former coach.

"Metsu's coming in, probably he will make some changes, maybe in tactics, maybe in line-up, we'll have to wait for that."