Espanyol's Chinese forward Wu Lei warms up before the Spanish League football match between Espanyol and Atletico Madrid at the Cornella-El Prat stadium in Cornella de Llobregat on March 1, 2020. (PAU BARRENA / AFP)

BEIJING - Spainish La Liga's Espanyol striker Wu Lei will not join the training camp of Chinese men's soccer national team in March in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, said the Team China official social media on Thursday.

Wu Lei is in Spain to help the bottom-positioned Espanyol avoid La Liga relegation

In order to prepare for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against the Maldives and Guam on March 26 and 31 respectively, Team China called up a 26-player roster to participate in the training camp in Dubai since March 3, with Wu as the only Europe-based player on the list.

"After the assessment of coaching team and approved by Chinese Football Association, Wu will not participate in the whole training camp," announced Team China as Wu stays in Spain to help the bottom-positioned Espanyol avoid relegation.

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In addition, the Asian Football Confederation confirmed last Thursday that they will evaluate the influence of COVID-19 outbreak on all World Cup qualifiers of Asia in March, and the Chinese team's matches could possibly be postponed.

"Although the match schedule has no been decided, I hope that players will focus their attention during this training camp, and earnestly complete every training session and every match despite all difficulties," Chinese team head coach Li Tie responded.

According to Team China, 24 players conducted the first training session on Wednesday afternoon, while Guangzhou Evergrande defender Zhang Linpeng trained alone under the guidance of fitness coach due to injury.