Celtic striker Scott McDonald's World Cup ambitions hang in the balance after Australia coach Pim Verbeek decided to look at other options.

The Hoops frontman has been left out of the Socceroos squad for the upcoming Asian Cup qualifier against Oman.

With a cloud over the fitness of Josh Kennedy, who was included in the squad, the non-selection of McDonald was the biggest indication yet that Verbeek has been not impressed with the diminutive marksman's form at international level where he has now played 15 games and is yet to score a goal.

If Kennedy does not play, Verbeek is likely to call up a player from the A-League, or possibly Dutch-based striker Nikita Rukavytsya, rather than McDonald.

Verbeek said: "With Scott McDonald, for the moment I have enough strikers available. If I lose Josh for this game, I will probably take another player. We don't have another player like Josh Kennedy, that's clear, so maybe we have to look and find a different player.

"Scott is a different type of player to Josh. There's some players doing well in the A-League at the moment. They are on the list."

Verbeek said Archie Thompson, Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge were the next in line should Kennedy be unavailable.

While he admits he is still sorting his striking options out ahead of next year's World Cup, Verbeek denied he was concerned that Australia was becoming too reliant on Everton's Tim Cahill to score goals in matches.

"Timmy is an attacking player, his qualities are scoring goals, that's his job and that's what he has to do," Verbeek said. "Every player has his task. I'm very happy with Timmy, but I'm sure some other players can score goals."