NATIONAL youth coach Brad Maloney is running out of time ahead of the AFC Under-23 qualifiers in Mongolia on Oct 25-31.
With the qualifiers around the corner, the Australian hopes his four trainees, who were with the senior team in Amman, would be exempted from the 14-day quarantine requirement.
Maloney wants to build his Under-23 team around Mukhairi Ajmal Mahadi, Hakimi Abdullah, Quentin Cheng and Luqman Hakim Samsudin, who all played for Harimau Malaya against Jordan and Uzbekistan in Amman last week.
The senior players, including the four, completed their first day of quarantine in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Maloney revealed that the FA of Malaysia (FAM) are in talks with the authorities to shorten the quarantine period of the four players.
The youth players are training in a bubble to prepare for the qualifiers. The trainees reported for centralised training at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya last week and will leave for Mongolia on Oct 20.
"The government has allowed border crossing in the states and has relaxed the quarantine rules, so I hope the four players will be given exemption to join our bubble training camp," said Maloney.
"We have slightly over a week left, and I need our best players to be in camp as soon as possible for the qualifiers.
"The four players did well with the senior national team, and they are my key players for the Mongolia assignment."
Maloney's side will play Premier League champions Negri Sembilan at the MBSJ Arena in Subang Jaya today, followed by Penang (Oct 15) and Kedah (Oct 18) in friendlies ahead of the qualifiers.
Malaysia will start their campaign in Ulaanbaatar against Laos on Oct 25, followed by hosts Mongolia (Oct 28) and Thailand (Oct 31).
Maloney said the friendly matches against the M-League clubs will be a good test for the players.
"It will also give me a chance to gauge their form before I finalise my squad of 23 players for the qualifiers. The game against Negri tomorrow will be our first match since 2019," he added.