The Socceroos' most important strike weapon Tim Cahill has given Australia's World Cup hopes a huge boost after being cleared of any serious neck injury.
Cahill is expected to resume full training tomorrow after being taken to hospital complaining of neck soreness following a header gone wrong in Australia's 3-1
defeat by the United States yesterday.
Scans revealed no damage, and the Everton midfielder took part in some light running at a recovery session at Ruimsig Stadium today.
Coach Pim Verbeek is confident all his injury concerns - Cahill, Brett Emerton (calf), Harry Kewell (groin), Brett Holman and Adam Federici (both soreness) - will train fully by early this week ahead of their World Cup opener against Germany next Monday (NZT).
"Timmy Cahill went to hospital yesterday because he has some problems with his neck, and the MRI (scans) were all good," Verbeek said.
"Tomorrow he will be ready. Instead of a normal header, because the (new World Cup) ball is still very hard to judge, he got the impact on his neck and shoulder - and that hurts. He's okay.
"Brett Holman, Brett Emerton and Adam will also be 100 per cent ready on the field."
After Verbeek raised concerns about the standard of the pitch at their assigned World Cup training venue Ruimsig Stadium, the Socceroos have won FIFA permission to split their training venues for the next week.
They will train three times at Ruimsig and use their previous base at St Stithian's College in Johannesburg for their two most crucial sessions ahead of the Germany match.
Australia had pencilled in a full week's training at Ruimsig in Roodepoort, one hour's drive from Johannesburg.
But Verbeek believes the surface there doesn't cope well with a heavy workload, and FIFA agreed to Australia's request.
"It's not good, that's clear," Verbeek said of the Ruimsig surface, which has cut up badly after the Socceroos' two friendly matches last week.
"We can train here, the day after tomorrow they can prepare it, then we can come back here (the next day)."
- AAP
