Rooney to miss opener

LONDON: Wayne Rooney’s broken right foot will keep him out of England’s first game at the World Cup and likely through the whole group stage. Rooney received the results of a CT scan on Friday, four weeks after the injury. Another scan would take place on June 14, four days after England’s opener against Paraguay, and only one day before playing Trinidad and Tobago.

Cahill fit, Kewell not

MELBOURNE: Midfielder Tim Cahill is fully fit but striker Harry Kewell’s status for Australia is still in doubt.Cahill has recovered from a knee ligament injury and will return to full training once it arrives in the Netherlands for a pre-World Cup camp. Australian assistant coach Graham Arnold said Cahill had only trained lightly for the opening four days, but said he was now fit and ready to go.

Japan heads for WC

TOKYO: Japan’s World Cup squad departed for Germany on Friday. After arriving in Germany, Japan will play the World Cup hosts and Malta in a tuneup matches before its Group F opening game on June 12 against Australia at Kaiserslautern. Japan will play Croatia at Nuremburg on June 18 and take on Brazil in its final first-round match at Dortmund on June 22.

Vucinic may miss WC

BELGRADE: Serbia-Montenegro striker Mirko Vucinic may miss the World Cup because of a knee injury he suffered this week. Vucinic — the only Montenegrin in Serbia-Montenegro’s squad — damaged left knee ligaments in Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Germany at the Under-21 European Championships in Portugal.