China has began drafting in players born overseas in a quick fix to reach the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Although the world's most populous country has big football ambitions, they are perennial underachievers ranked 77th in the world,

The development has forced China to bank on naturalised players as Coach Li of the national team named five foreign-born players for critical World Cup qualifiers starting later this month.

Among the 26-man squad picked by Coach Li to reach the world Cup are a trio of offensive players originally from Brazil -- Elkeson, Fernando Henrique and Alan Carvalho.

Also included is their Guangzhou FC teammate Tyias Browning, the former Everton central defender who was born in Liverpool and played for England youth teams.

The fifth naturalized player is Nico Yennaris, the former Arsenal midfielder and another to have played for England youth teams before switching to China.

China's hopes of reaching the World Cup are in the balance while some Chinese media, pundits and former internationals have questioned the move to bring in foreign players.

However, Li is confident of the team's capacity which has been boosted by the return of star forward Wu Lei, after he failed to make recent training squads because he was with his Spanish club Espanyol.

Under former Everton player Li -- who took over when Lippi quit following the Syria defeat -- China are second in Asian qualifying Group A, eight points behind leaders Syria.

Only the team that finishes top is guaranteed to reach the next stage of qualifying.

The rest of the matches in Group A are set to take place in China from May 30 until June 15, with the hosts facing Guam, Maldives, Philippines and Syria.