Rehhagel has not sprung any major surprises as he seeks to rebuild his squad.

Eintracht Frankfurt striker Yiannis Amanatidis will not be available for Greece’s 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Luxembourg and Latvia after picking up an injury on Saturday while playing for the German club.

Amanatidis expects to be out of action for two weeks and will miss Saturday’s game in Luxembourg and the match in Latvia on September 10. The striker suffered the injury after opening the score for Eintracht in a 2-2 draw with Wolfsburg.

He was replaced by fellow Greece international Nikos Liberopoulos, who was included in the 22-man squad that Otto Rehhagel announced on Monday. A replacement for Amanatidis for the qualifiers had not been announced by last night.

The German coach has not sprung any major surprises as he seeks to gradually rebuild his squad following Greece’s disappointing performance at Euro 2008, where it lost all three games.

One stalwart of Rehhagel’s recent qualifying campaigns, Stelios Giannakopoulos has been left out of the squad and it looks as if the midfielder has played his last game for the national side. The 34-year-old has represented Greece 77 times but was released by Premiership side Bolton Wanderers at the end of last season and has yet to sign for another club.

Rehhagel has turned to youth for Giannakopoulos’s replacement, calling up Panathinaikos’s 18-year-old midfielder Sotiris Ninis. The U21 international is joined by 20-year-old Sokratis Papastathopoulos who moved from AEK to Italian side Genoa this summer, as part of Rehhagel’s effort to inject new blood in his aging squad.

Goalkeeper Alexis Tzorvas, who rejoined Panathinaikos last week after a spell with OFI Crete, is another fresh face in the squad.

Greece does not go into these games with good morale following its Euro 2008 campaign. But the national side did beat Slovakia 2-0 in a friendly match last month and Rehhagel will be looking for two wins to get the qualifying campaign off to a good start, especially with games against the group’s two toughest teams, Switzerland and Israel, as well as outsider Moldova still to come.

The full squad: Goalkeepers: Costas Chalkias (PAOK), Alexis Tzorvas (Panathinaikos) Defenders: Giourkas Seitaridis (Atletico Madrid), Traianos Dellas (Anorthosis Famagusta), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Genoa), Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos), Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiakos), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (AEK Athens), Loukas Vintra (Panathinaikos), Dimitris Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos) Midfielders: Costas Katsouranis (Benfica), Angelos Basinas (AEK), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos), Forwards: Nikos Liberopoulos (Eintracht Frankfurt), Giorgos Samaras (Celtic), Angelos Charisteas (Nuremberg), Fanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen)