Bae Junho is scheduled to fly out to join the South Korea under-23s squad after Stoke City’s mid-week game at Cardiff. The playmaker and Swansea’s Um Ji-sung are set to travel on Thursday to meet the rest of a group that is already in Japan preparing for this year’s Asian Games.
Coach Lee Min-sung and domestic-based players made the trip from Seoul on Sunday morning and will be based in Shizuoka until Friday. They will start their tournament with a group stage game against Qatar on September 15 in Nagoya before taking on Saudi Arabia on September 22. Two of those three teams will progress to the knock-out rounds.
South Korea are hoping to win the competition for a fourth time in a row and are aiming for a place in the gold medal match in Toyota on October 3.
It means that Junho will miss Stoke’s Championship trip to Watford next Saturday and a home match against Sheffield United a week later. That is the final game before a three-week international break, a new-look calendar drawn up by Fifa rather than having separate two-week breaks in September and October.
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Junho, aged 23, started Stoke’s 1-0 win over Norwich last Tuesday but was an unused substitute for a 4-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
Coach Min-sung told the Korean press: “It has been over a year that we have been preparing for the Asian Games. The journey was not smooth, but I believe it has been a great tonic for us. We have thoroughly prepared to address past mistakes and areas needing improvement. We will do our best to win a gold medal at this Asian Games.”
Kim Ji-su (Brentford), and Yang Min-hyuk (Tottenham) are also included in the squad while Yang Hyun-jun (Celtic), and Swansea’s Ji-sung have been have taken wildcard slots for players aged over 24.
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