In the goalkeeper position, Nguyen Tan suffered an shoulder injury during training and was forced to leave the team before the tournament. This is a notable loss for the coaching staff, because according to the regulations of the organizers, each participating team is only allowed to register a maximum of 23 players and must have enough 3 goalkeepers in the official competition list.
Faced with this situation, the U23 Vietnam coaching staff decided to additionally summon goalkeeper Pham Dinh Hai, a player born in 2006 currently under contract with Hanoi club. The 1m85 tall goalkeeper has repeatedly worn the jerseys of national youth teams such as U16, U17, U19 and U20 Vietnam.
Pham Dinh Hai will move from Vietnam to Saudi Arabia to join the team after U23 Vietnam finishes training in Qatar and moves to the official competition venue on January 2. Currently, U23 Vietnam has 3 goalkeepers including Tran Trung Kien, Cao Van Binh and Pham Dinh Hai.
Not only having problems in defense, U23 Vietnam also continues to receive bad news in attack. Striker Nguyen Thanh Nhan suffered a torn muscle and could not participate in the friendly match with U23 Syria taking place on the evening of December 30th. Thanh Nhan's case has caused the coaching staff to closely monitor, because this player has just returned after a period of injury treatment.
At SEA Games 33, Nguyen Thanh Nhan made important contributions to the journey to win the gold medal of U23 Vietnam, including the decisive goal in the final.
However, with the latest injury, this striker is facing the risk of not recovering in time to participate in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship finals. The opening match of U23 Vietnam against U23 Jordan is scheduled to take place on January 6, while the final registered list is only close to the match time.
Currently, U23 Vietnam has 24 players on the training list, after saying goodbye to center-back Dang Tuan Phong due to injury before the training trip in Qatar.
Continuous changes in force are posing no small challenges for the coaching staff in the process of completing the squad, especially when the tournament is approaching.
