Scott left out of All Whites

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GREAT SCOTT: Hamilton's Aaron Scott, left, and Auckland's Adam Dickinson battle for the ball in a NZFC game last year.

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Hamilton All White Aaron Scott is out of the national squad for the next warmup game and his place at the World Cup could be in doubt.

Coach Ricki Herbert announced his side yesterday with no place for the Melville and Waitakere defender as he wanted to "try out" new recruit Tommy Smith for the soccer match against fellow World Cup qualifiers Mexico. The game – New Zealand's first since they beat Bahrain 1-0 in Wellington in November – will be played in Los Angeles on March 3.

Herbert had said the 18 players involved in the home and away win over Bahrain would more than likely go to South Africa in June, but just what role Scott would play and where he sat in Herbert's thinking was now unclear.

Scott said yesterday he was "pretty disappointed" when he found out on Saturday.

"I wasn't the happiest man on Saturday night," he said.

"I knew I wasn't guaranteed a spot and didn't presume I'd get one, but was pretty disappointed to miss out."

Herbert said there was no need to take more than 17 players and is expected to name at least one more defender when the World Cup squad is named in May.

"Aaron just needs to keep working," Herbert said yesterday. "Aaron's been injured and needs a little bit of work and needs a little bit of time (to get back to where he was)."

That injury – a deep haematoma to his right hip – is all but gone and he would have played Waitakere United's New Zealand Football Championship game against Otago at the weekend.

"But when I found out I was out, there was no rush back so we decided to give it another week," said Scott, who hoped to be back this week for his side's game against Team Wellington.

Scott said he could either keep working hard or sulk and his decision was a no-brainer.

Herbert said when Scott was 100 per cent fit, "Aaron is good, he just needs to keep chipping away".

The coach confirmed there was a chance he would follow the formation that worked against Bahrain and only play three defenders and ask the wingers to cover, and backed that up by naming only five defenders in the squad.

Smith, who plays for Brentford in Football League One, on loan from Roy Keane's Ipswich Town, has made himself available for New Zealand after the Liverpool-born midfielder played in age grades for England.

Midfielder Craig Henderson, who plays in Sweden for Mjallby AIF, has also been brought into the squad for the first time and Herbert said his inclusion and Smith's was as much about preparing for this World Cup as it was for developing for future campaigns.

The match against Mexico is the third confirmed game in the All Whites buildup. They play Serbia in Austria at the end of May and Slovenia in early June.

SQUAD

Glen Moss, James Bannatyne, Tony Lochhead, Ryan Nelsen, Andrew Boyens, Ben Sigmund, Tommy Smith, Andy Barron, Leo Bertos, Tim Brown, Simon Elliott, Michael McGlinchey, Craig Henderson, Shane Smeltz, Rory Fallon, Chris Killen, Chris Wood.

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