SEOUL: Paris St-Germain’s Lee Kang-in will miss South Korea’s vital home World Cup qualifier against Jordan on Tuesday after picking up an ankle injury, his national coach said.

The 24-year-old attacking midfielder provided the through ball for Wolverhampton Wanderers Hwang Hee-chan to score in a 1-1 home draw with Oman on Thursday.

Lee, who has 35 caps and nine goals for his country, was substituted off five minutes from the end of the stalemate at Goyang Stadium.

Lee, who had come on as a first-half substitute, rolled his left ankle, Yonhap News agency said.

Coach Hong Myung-bo told reporters that Lee, together with Paik Seung-ho of Birmingham City and Jung Seung-hyun of Al Wasl in the UAE, were all out.

“With Lee Kang-in, tests showed that his injury isn’t as serious as we once feared,” Hong said on Saturday, according to Yonhap.

“I just had a talk with him and I was able to reaffirm his commitment to the national team.

“However, he is just as important to his club as he is to the national team.”

South Korea top Asian qualifying Group ‘B’ with four wins and three draws from seven games and are on course for the 2026 World Cup in North America.

But they were pegged back late on by Oman, and are now only three points ahead of Jordan and Iraq with three rounds of games to go.

The top two go straight to the World Cup.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2025