Socceroos name strong squad for Ghana

Australia named a full strength 18-man squad for its November 14 international friendly with Ghana at Loftus Road in London.

The majority of Australia's World Cup squad has been selected along with Brett Holman, Scott McDonald and Patrick Kisnorbo who all played against Kuwait in September while Norway-based defender Shane Stefanutto received his first national call-up.

Head coach Graham Arnold picked an all European based squad for the clash, opting against using Australian A-League based players due to the distance and lack of time to travel for the Tuesday evening match.

Arnold said the selection of Stefanutto, who spent six years in the old national league with Brisbane, was due to the recent departure of some experienced defenders.

"We have had quite a few international retirements of left-sided defenders in a short space of time including Stan Lazaridis, Tony Vidmar, Tony Popovic and Danny Tiatto so we need to develop some other options and Shane will increase those options in that area," said Arnold.

Ghana were the only African nation to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup after beating Czech Republic and USA in the group stage.

They eventually lost to Brazil in the last 16.

Ghana are ranked 24th in the world, 13 places ahead of the Socceroos in 37th position.