MANILA, Philippines — Veteran goalkeeper Neil Etheridge and naturalized player Bienvenido Marañon provide star power as the 24-man Azkals lineup from the Philippines head to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the final round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup playoffs. AFC Asian Cup to be held on June 8.

Etheridge and Marañon join debutants Gerrit Holtmann of the Bundesliga, Mike and Manny Ott, Oskari Kekkonen and Anthony Pinthus of United City.

Noticeably absent was former skipper Stephan Schrock who had already been announced as being left out of the squad with the reinstatement of coach Thomas Dooley.

Schrock last played for the Azkals with the U-23 team at the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi last month.

Also on the list are Kevin Mendoza, Mar Diano, Simone Rota, Miguel Mendoza, Daisuke Sato, Jefferson Tabinas, Jesse Curran, Jesus Melliza, Sandro Reyes, Dylan Debrucker, Dennis Villanueva, Oliver Bias and Kenshiro Daniels.

Mark Hartmann, OJ Porteria, Patrick Reichelt and the injured Amani Aguinaldo will also travel to Mongolia.

Raphael Obermair, Patrick Strauss, Michael Kempter, Carli De Murga, Kevin Ingresso and Diego Bardanca are among the players expected to watch the action but had to be ruled out due to injury.

The Azkals play three games in Mongolia with Yemen on their first assignment on Wednesday.

They will face Mongolia, host country, on June 11, then Palestine on June 14.