Wednesday Late World Cup News

France's Djibril Cisse looks certain to miss the World Cup after suffering a suspected broken leg in a friendly against China.

After only 12 minutes of the match at St Etienne on Wednesday night, his ankle buckled and he was stretchered off.

His replacement, David Trezeguet, opened the scoring as France struggled to a 3-1 win with two goals in the last minute.

Cisse's start up front with Thierry Henry was widely taken as a sign that French coach Raymond Domenech would start with the Liverpool striker at the World Cup. Louis Saha was also given a starting berth in a friendly against Denmark last week but now Trezeguet has probably done enough to seal a starting position in the opening game against Switzerland.

If Cisse is ruled out, it's expected that Domenech will call up either Nicolas Anelka or Ludovic Giuly as a replacement, but no definite decision can be made until the French camp gets a full report on Cisse's injury.

The unfortunate Frenchman broke his other leg in October 2004 and it was rumoured that Marseille directors were in Liverpool on Wednesday to discuss a transfer back to Ligue 1 for the former Auxerre player.

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Spain grabbed a last minute winner against Croatia in Geneva, in both sides' last friendly before the World Cup.

Spain started with Jose Antonio Reyes and Joaquin playing wide in midfield with Raul partnering David Villa up front.

Croatia took the lead when a Niko Kranjcar cross was headed into the back of his own net by a disoriented Pablo.

The Raul-Villa partnership looked disjointed and the Real Madrid captain was replaced at half-time by Fernando Torres.

Debutant left-back Mariano Pernia got the equaliser for the Spanish with a free kick deflecting off Igor Tudor on the end of the Croatian wall. Pernia, an Argentinian by birth, only joined up with the Spanish last week, replacing Chelsea's injured Asier del Horno.

Torres lived up to his reputation of inconsistency by weakly missing a penalty on 75 minutes but made up for it by slaloming past two defenders on the edge of the box and drilling the ball past Stipe Pletikosa in the second minute of injury time.

Spain open their World Cup with a match against Ukraine in Leipzig on June 14, while the Croatians face Brazil in Berlin a day earlier.

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In the absence of any information on Wayne Rooney's foot, the British media have tried to diagnose the state of the Manchester United boy wonder's metatarsal by looking at the expression on his face.

Early reports from the Daily Mail had Rooney looking gloomy but most reports now take the broad grin on his face as he left the Manchester hospital to be an indication that the news was good.

In the absence of anything official from the English FA, full confirmation is still awaited. Misery Guts Alex Ferguson will probably also have something dour and Scottish to say on the subject.

Wayne Rooney is generally considered to have a potatoey face but I maintain that the food stuff he most reminds me of is a chicken nugget. Take a look at his chunky frame and tell me otherwise. If anything else edible springs to mind when you look at footballers please let me know.