His assistant, Jabban, was appointed as a new boss at the start of March. His mandate is to bridge the gap with league leaders Tishreen and get Al Jaish’s AFC Cup campaign back on track.

Jabban started brightly, with two wins in his first two matches as head coach. A 3-1 win over Al Majd in the domestic league closed the gap to the top down to one point, and valuable 1-0 AFC Cup triumph against Lebanon’s Nejmeh put Al Jaish in second place with four points.

Next challenge? Toppling Jordan’s Al Wehdat off the top of Group A when the two sides face-off in Bahrain on Monday.

“Al Wehdat are a great team with a proud history,” said the 43-year-old coach, who represented Al Jaish as a player for nearly two decades.

“But it is not impossible for us to beat them, in football nothing is impossible. It is now our goal, especially after the crucial win we got against Nejmeh on Matchday Two.”

As a former Syrian national team captain, Jabban is well aware of the challenges of balancing club and country commitments, and it is a challenge many of his Al Jaish players have had to contend with throughout March.

“I hope we can have as many players as possible available for us, but a large number of our players have either joined the senior team for friendlies in Iraq or the U23 national team for the U23 AFC Championship qualifiers.

“I have asked the players to remain focused in training, and to avoid unnecessary strong challenges. We have to keep everyone who is available in good health for the match.”

Al Jaish travel to Bahrain, their adopted home for the Matchday Three clash against Al Wehdat, with four points to their name. A win will send them top of group A ahead of the Jordanians who currently have six. Meanwhile a draw will keep the status quo.