New Tunisia coach Sabri Lamouchi named an expansive 30-man squad to take to North America for their two World Cup warm-up matches this month, experimenting with several new candidates.
Lamouchi, a former France international whose parents hail from Tunisia, was named last month as coach in place of Sami Trabelsi, sacked after they were eliminated in the round of 16 at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco at the start of the year.
In the first game for the new coach, Tunisia play against Haiti on March 28 and then World Cup co-host Canada on March 31. Both matches are being played in Toronto.
There is a first call up at the age of 32 for Rani Khedira, whose elder brother Sami won the World Cup with Germany in 2014.
Rani Khedira had previously rejected overtures from the Tunisians but recently formalised a switch of international allegiance after playing for Germany at youth level.
There are also a host of teenage additions with two Major League soccer candidates called up in Rayan Elloumi, 18, of Vancouver Whitecaps and Anisse Saidi, 17, from San Diego. Also in the squad is Khali Ayari, who plays in the Paris Saint Germain under-21 squad.
SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Sabri Ben Hassen (Etoile Sahel), Abdelmouhib Chamakh (Club Africain), Aymen Dahman (CS Sfaxien), Noureddine Farhat (Stade Tunisien)
Defenders: Ali Abdi (Nice, France), Adem Arous (Kasimpasa, Turkey), Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida (Esperance), Mortada Ben Ouanes (Kasimpasa, Turkey), Raed Chikhaoui (US Monastir), Alaa Ghram (Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine), Moutaz Naffetti (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden), Omar Rekik (NK Maribor, Slovenia), Yan Valery (Young Boys, Switzerland), Ghaith Zaalouni (Etoile Sahel)
Midfielders: Anis Ben Slimane (Norwich City, England), Ismael Gharbi (FC Augsburg, Germany), Rani Khedira (Union Berlin, Germany), Hadj Mahmoud (Lugano, Switzerland), Hannibal Mejbri (Burnley, England), Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
Forwards: Khali Ayari (Paris Saint Germain, France), Omar Ben Ali (CS Sfaxien), Louey Ben Farhat (Karlsruhe, Ger), Fires Chaouat (Club Africain), Rayan Elloumi (Vancouver Whitecaps, Canada), Sayfallah Ltaeif (Greuther Furth, Germany), Hazem Mastouri (Dynamo Makhachkala, Russia), Elias Saad (Hannover 96, Germany), Anisse Saidi (San Diego, USA), Sebastien Tounekti (Glasgow Celtic, Scotland)

