Donis's decision was not limited to Salem and Saud, as the list of excluded players also included Ahmed Al-Kassar, Ali Majrashi, Ali Lajami, Ayman Yahya, Saleh Al-Shehri, and Khalid Al-Ghannam, bringing the number of players absent from the Gulf Cup 27 squad despite being in the World Cup squad to 8 players.
In return, the Greek coach called up 8 new players to replace those excluded: Hamed Al-Shanqiti, Mohammed Mahzari, Zakaria Hawsawi, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, Abdullah Al-Salem, Rayan Hamed, and Hammam Al-Hammami.
According to the Green Falcons' account on X, the final Saudi national team squad includes 26 players, who are:
Mohammed Al-Owais, Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Hamed Al-Shanqiti, Abdulelah Al-Amri, Jihad Zekri, Rayan Hamed, Hassan Kadesh, Hassan Tambakti, Nawaf Boushal, Mohammed Mahzari, Moteb Al-Harbi, Zakaria Hawsawi, Musab Al-Juwayr, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Mohamed Kanno, Ziyad Al-Johani, Abdullah Al-Khaibari, Nasser Al-Dawsari, Alaa Hajj, Sultan Mandash, Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat, Hammam Al-Hammami, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Firas Al-Buraikan, and Abdullah Al-Salem.
The Saudi national team begins its journey in the tournament by facing Kuwait on September 23 at Al-Inmaa Stadium in King Abdullah Sports City, before meeting Oman on September 26, and concluding its group stage matches by facing Iraq on the 29th of the same month.
The "Gulf Cup 27" draw placed the Saudi national team in Group A alongside Kuwait, Oman, and Iraq, while Group B includes the national teams of Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and Yemen.
