U23 Vietnam finalizes 23-man squad for ASIAD 2026: Key players absent due to injuries and national team plans

Head coach Dinh Hong Vinh has finalised a 23-player U23 Vietnam squad for ASIAD 2026 in Japan. The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) made the announcement while balancing continental youth goals and senior national team plans. By position, the squad includes three goalkeepers, seven defenders, nine midfielders, and four forwards. Notably, several players who made major contributions to the 2026 AFC U23 Asian Championship bronze-medal campaign are absent. The first reason is senior national team planning. Nguyen Dinh Bac, Tran Trung Kien and Nhat Minh are being kept for upcoming national team gatherings. All three were part of the recent ASEAN Cup-winning team, so keeping them with the senior squad shows the VFF wants stability at the top level. From a professional perspective, this decision can be seen as prioritising senior-team targets over an ASIAD campaign. The second absent group is injured players. Nguyen Hieu Minh, Nguyen Thai Son, Bui Vi Hao and Khue Van Khang cannot travel to Japan because of ligament injuries. This is a significant blow, as these players were important to the U23 Asian bronze-medal run. Losing several key figures at once forces the medical staff to work harder during preparation and pushes coach Dinh Hong Vinh to speed up experiments with his starting line-up. Looking at the squad structure, the midfield is the largest department with nine players. Compared to only four forwards, this gap may suggest a desire to control the game or rotate possession through the middle. But it may also simply reflect injuries and national team call-ups among the main strikers. With only four forwards, the coaching staff needs a flexible plan, possibly shifting attacking focus to attacking midfielders or using wingers who can cut inside. Position data only shows the personnel picture; it does not confirm the official playing style. Another positive point is the wide range of club sources. Besides Hanoi, Song Lam Nghe An, Cong An TP.HCM and Hai Phong, the list includes representatives from CAND, Quy Nhon United, Hue, Ninh Binh and The Cong. Such a broad distribution prevents the youth team from depending on a single academy or one club's style. In the long term, this is a healthy signal for Vietnam's talent identification system, as ASIAD opportunities open up to players from different regions. The context of this ASIAD is also worth recalling. Before the tournament in Japan, U23 Vietnam had just enjoyed a rare successful cycle: the senior national team won the ASEAN Cup and the U23 side earned a continental bronze. Those results raised expectations among fans. At the same time, experts understand that ASIAD is not the ideal tournament for measuring the true strength of an age-group squad when several core players are unavailable. With the current squad, coach Dinh Hong Vinh must solve a two-sided problem. On one hand, he needs to build a competitive group to keep U23 Vietnam among Southeast Asia's leading teams. On the other hand, he must give young players international experience. If the VFF had focused only on short-term results, it could have asked the healthy key players to join. Keeping them with the national team suggests a long-term plan is being carried out. The story now is not only about how far U23 Vietnam can go. With a young squad and many new faces, a more realistic objective is to stay competitive and help individual players improve. The success of ASIAD 2026 could be measured by how many young players are ready to break into the senior national team within the next one or two years. If that happens, the policy of letting senior ASEAN Cup winners focus on national team campaigns may be viewed more positively. In the coming days, the team will hold short training sessions before departure. The injured players will be absent, which creates chances for lesser-known names to prove themselves. In attack, the role of the remaining four forwards becomes even more important. They are expected not only to score goals but also to connect with the crowded midfield behind them.