George Timotheou is currently with Belgian First Division A club Zulte-Waregem, but it's believed the Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United are interested in the Canberra defender.

Timotheou is back in the ACT for a 10-day Christmas break, but is set to return to Belgium on Friday - unless a potential loan or permanent deal is finalised before then.

Timotheou was left out of Graham Arnold's under-23 squad for the Asian championships in Thailand, announced on Monday.

The 22-year-old was part of an Australian under-23 camp earlier in the year, but hasn't been picked this time.

Timotheou's struggled to get game time at Zulte-Waregem since making his debut off the bench against Standard Liege in August.

He said it was hard for Arnold to select him if he wasn't playing and it's something the centre-back's hoping to rectify.

The Olyroos left for Malaysia on Monday ahead of next month's championships, where they need to finish in the top three to qualify for their first Olympics since 2008.

"My goal for next year is to try and play more games and get more game time because the last six months I haven't been playing much," Timotheou told The Canberra Times.

"It doesn't really matter if it's in Belgium or wherever it is. I just need to be playing, starting and getting consistent game time for the next six months.

"I want to crack into the Olympics team, because I was there in one of the camps pretty recently.

"It's really, really important to me to do that. I think the Olympics could push my career forward."

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

Timotheou has enjoyed his time in Belgium since shifting from German Bundesliga club FC Schalke - except for the lack of game time.

He's been training indoors to avoid Canberra's smoke and saw it close up when driving back from Sydney the other day - forced to drive through plumes of it on the Hume Highway.

"There's interest from quite a few A-League clubs. There's interest from overseas as well," Timotheou said.

"It's just about the right move right now. Obviously coming back to Australia to play is a more viable option because I'm more in the eyes of the national team selectors."

Arnold said Timotheou was up against plenty of competition for spots in his position.

"Georgey came to the October camp in Qatar. We've announced the squad so unfortunately for Georgey he's not in the squad," he said.

"We've got a strong backline. We've got a lot of competition for centre-back positions.

"If you look at Dylan Ryan, Josh Laws, Tass Mourdoukoutas, as well as right footers in Thomas Deng, and then Harry Souttar, we've got a lot of depth in that role and that position."

OLYROOS SQUAD: Keanu Baccus, Daniel Bouman, Trent Buhagiar, Gabriel Cleur, Nicholas D'Agostino, Thomas Deng, Zach Duncan, Ben Folami, Denis Genreau, Alex Gersbach, Thomas Glover (GK), Thomas Heward-Belle (GK), Jordan Holmes (GK), Jacob Italiano, Joshua Laws, Connor Metcalfe, Tass Mourdoukoutas, Ramy Najjarine, Aiden O'Neill, Connor O'Toole, Reno Piscopo, Dylan Ryan, Al Hassan Toure.