KUALA LUMPUR: It gets harder for Stuart Wilkin to get into Malaysia's first 11 due to the growing list of quality footballers available to coach Kim Pan Gon.
The English-Malaysian midfielder will need to prove that he deserves a place more than six others at the Asian Cup in Qatar next month.
His six rivals in the 26-man team are Afiq Fazail, Natxo Insa, Syamer Kutty Abba, Endrick Dos Santos, Brendan Gan and Paulo Josue.
"We can see that the midfield position is extremely competitive with such great players on the call-up sheet," said Stuart who dons Sabah colours in the Super League.
"All I can do is continue to work hard in training and try to be consistent with my performance.
"These are high-level players that we know from the league.
"Hopefully I get a chance to share the field with these guys."
In the Asian Cup, World No. 130 Malaysia are drawn in Group E with two-time Asian Cup champions South Korea (No. 23), Bahrain (86) and Jordan (87).
Stuart said Harimau Malaya are capable of matching the higher-ranked teams in Doha following their good run this year.
"I think throughout the year we've shown that we can compete with teams ranked much higher than us.
"We have been competitive.
"This gives us the confidence going into the tournament where nothing is impossible, and that if we play to our best, anything can happen."
Malaysia will play Jordan in their group opener on Jan 16 followed by Bahrain (Jan 20) and South Korea (Jan 25).
kw: Football, Stuart Wilkin, Kim Pan Gon, Asian Cup, Qatar