With a stronger squad available, head coach V. Sundramoorthy is expecting a much improved performance from Singapore when they take on Bahrain in an international friendly in Riffa on Thursday night.
The Lions will get most of their big-name players back for the trip to West Asia, including the Johor Darul Ta'zim trio of Hariss Harun, Baihakki Khaizan and Shahril Ishak, plus PDRM FA captain Safuwan Baharudin.
The 24-man squad departs on Tuesday in what Sundram believes is an important warm up for November's AFF Suzuki Cup.
"They bring a lot of experience and character to the team," Sundram told ESPN FC. "Players like these will definitely help the team perform better."
The former national winger added that he was close to finalising the players he wanted to use in the prestigious Southeast Asian tournament that places Singapore in Group A in Philippines.
"You can take it that majority of these players here will be heading to the Suzuki Cup, and we will add on in certain positions if needed," Sundram told Today.
"We've more or less finalised the squad, but maybe we'll add on a couple of others like [injured winger] Faris Ramli and a few other players who impress in the S.League in the next couple of months."
Also making the trip will be highly rated goalkeeper Hassan Sunny, who plies his trade with Army United FC in the Premier League of Thailand.
Without their big names, Singapore struggled on June's training tour of Japan and Cambodia, losing three of four matches, including an embarrassing defeat to a Niigata university team. However, Sundram stressed that he wasn't overly concerned about results, as he experimented with new combinations in the absence of key personnel.
"We missed a lot of players during the training tour, but it was important to get exposure for the other [fringe] players so that we could take a closer look at them," he said.
"We'll be going to take on Bahrain with our main objective to better prepare the players for the Suzuki Cup. We'll see how Bahrain play and we'll plan for them tactically. We will keep it tight and make sure all the players understand our game plan.
"I'm just about three months into the job, but I think we're more or less ready to go to the Suzuki Cup and do our best."
After the Bahrain match, Singapore's national players won't be in action again until early October when they face Malaysia (Oct. 7, Singapore National Stadium) and Hong Kong (Oct. 11, Mongkok Stadium).
As they chase a fifth ASEAN title, Singapore will face Philippines (co-hosts), defending champions Thailand and a new-look Indonesia squad.