Did you see Edwin van der Sar in the game against Serbia and Montenegro? He was suffering from cramp half way through the second half and he's a goalkeeper. What sort of a training regime must Holland be putting their players though?
I hope Sir Alex Ferguson was watching, because its not as if Wayne Rooney's fitness is the only thing he needs to worry about during this World Cup. There's Ruud van Nistelrooy's mental state too, after he was substituted in Holland's first game, and it looks very much like Argentina have rushed Gabriel Heinze back after the injury that prevented him playing for Manchester United for most of last season. Not only did Argentina start with Heinze, they played him on central defence instead of left back and he looked pretty good.
One trusts that Fergie will shortly be on the blower to Jose Pekerman and Marco van Basten, and is not just making Sven-Goran Eriksson's life a misery, though perhaps he is saving his fury for Thursday, when Rooney is likely to be given part of the game against Trinidad & Tobago. The boy needs games, and if he is not going to be given half an hour in a match like that, when is he to acquire match fitness? Sweden might be playing for their World Cup lives in the next game, and in any knockout round after that it would be too big a risk to use an unfit Rooney. Watch this space.
At least England's next game is a night match, so they won't be complaining about the heat. It was hot in Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon, to be fair, but England don't help themselves. Anxious to base themselves as far away from the rest of the World Cup as possible, they are currently training half way up a mountain near Baden-Baden.
Paul Wilson is the Observer's chief football writer
