Djibril Cisse of France is evacuated by medical staff after being tackled by China's Zheng Zhi during a friendly international at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint Etienne, France, on Wednesday. - REUTERS
BERLIN, (Reuters):
WHETHER A footballer is a highly paid professional about to take part in the World Cup finals or an eager amateur playing for fun in a local league both fear one thing above all others - sustaining a serious injury.
Players have been getting injured since the day the sport began and every footballer, no matter his standard, is almost guaranteed to miss matches because of injury at some stage during his career.
But questions are being raised about a new trend at the highest level, with World Cup finalists playing highly competitive matches, sometimes against other finalists, just days before the start of the tournament.
BOOSTING CONFIDENCE
Until recently, most finalists would end their preparations against local amateur teams or weak international opposition to keep themselves ticking over and boost confidence by running up high-scoring wins.
Saudi Arabia did just that on Sunday when they beat local amateurs Bad Nauheim 15-0 with striker Sami Al Jaber scoring seven goals.
That philosophy is in stark contrast to the way the coaches of France and Netherlands, among others, have organised the final stages of their preparations.
The Dutch have traditionally prepared for tournaments with the credo that you should train the way you intend to play, meaning they play high quality, competitive friendlies against committed opposition of an equal standard.
But Sunday's 1-1 draw against Australia ended with three Dutch players - Giovanni van Bronckhorst (ankle), Philip Cocu (thigh) and Wesley Sneijder (ankle) - all injured.
Coach Marco Van Basten was initially left fretting and in some doubt about whether they would recover in time for their first match against Serbia & Montenegro on Sunday.
Worse though, was to befall France and Paraguay.
In the last few days French striker Djibril Cisse and Jose Cardozo of Paraguay have been ruled out of the finals after being injured in friendlies. There can be few more heartbreaking scenarios than the hell Cisse is enduring after breaking his right leg in a friendly against China in St Etienne on Wednesday.
It was France's last warm-up but came just six days before their opening World Cup match against Switzerland in Stuttgart.
Even more upsetting for the 24-year-old Liverpool player is that this is the second time in 20 months he has broken his leg.
He was also desperate to play in the World Cup after being dropped from France's Euro 2004 squad because a suspension would have ruled him out for most of the competition. Coach Raymond Domenech said: "After the injury the players just lost interest in the game, it is a tragedy."
LEADING SCORER
Paraguay striker Cardozo, who played in the 1998 and 2002 finals and is their all-time leading scorer, will also be watching on television after tearing a muscle in his left calf in a friendly against Denmark on May 27.
There is no doubt that every team needs to play warm-up matches ahead of the tournament with coaches fine-tuning their tactics and checking on the fitness and form of their players.
Jan Koller returned for his first match for Czech Republic since a serious knee injury last September, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Costa Rica last week.
