Blackburn Rovers winger Brett Emerton will literally have a mountain to climb when he joins his Australian teammates for March 26's crucial World Cup qualifier in China.

The match has been scheduled in Kunming - 1900 metres above sea level - in a move designed to make life as difficult as possible for the Socceroos.

The knock-on effect for Rovers is that Australian officials are making plans to call-up their European players for an extended period before the match which could involve Emerton missing three Premiership fixtures - away to West Ham on March 15, home to Wigan on March 22, and away to Reading on March 29 - which could impact on Rovers finishing in a UEFA Cup spot at the end of the season.

Already in a World Cup 'group of death' alongside Qatar and Iraq, the Socceroos' exposure to high altitude football will test the players' physical fitness like never before ahead of a crowded schedule of four qualifiers against Iraq and China in June.

Football Federation Australia's head of high performance John Boultbee said Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek will leave no stone unturned in helping the players acclimatise to the conditions.

"One of the important things is to establish which players can deal with altitude, or which individuals have a problem with it," Boultbee said.

"Acclimatising to altitude you can only do over an extended period - three, four or seven days doesn't work.

"That means you need to be wary of players who might struggle.

"We did a lot of research in 2005 when there was a prospect of playing (World Cup qualifiers) at altitude, which we'll tap into, and we've got all our technical staff together in the next few days to talk about it."

Emerton's Socceroos commitments in the summer are also likely to restrict his availability for Rovers' pre-season training programme.