Karimi, 34, suffered a groin injury during a training session in Iran a month ago.
“Karimi cannot accompany the team, and Hossain Badamaki has been invited to the team,” team manager Abbas Torabian said Monday in Tehran.
Iran is playing Bahrain today (November 11) at Manama’s Bahrain National Stadium. Iran routed Bahrain 6-0 in the match held at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium last month.
Coach Carlos Queiroz’s men will meet Indonesia four days later at Jakarta’s Bung Karno Stadium. Iran defeated the Indonesian team 3-0 in Tehran in their previous encounter.
Iran is in first place in Group E with 7 points followed by Qatar, which has five points, and Bahrain with four points. Indonesia is in fourth place with zero points.
After the two upcoming games are played, Iran will face only one more game, next February, to determine who advances to the next round.
Twenty Asian teams are divided into five groups of four teams each for this round. The top two teams from each group will then advance to the final Asian elimination round.
Iran is not expected to have difficulty advancing, though a key question is whether it finishes first or second.