Soccer Euro 2004 Qualifier: Switzerland v Ireland: As Brian Kerr won the battle that had prevented him from taking the Irish players for training on Wednesday, his opposite number Kubi Kuhn was yesterday claiming a much more significant victory in the cold war that has afflicted his squad's preparations for tomorrow's vital European Championship qualifying game in Basel.

While there were conflicting reports as to the real state of play behind the scenes in a Swiss camp where public divisions between the Yakin brothers on one side and other key figures like Stephane Henchoz and Jorg Stiel have overshadowed much of the home side's preparations, Kuhn insisted that talks on Tuesday had sorted out the problems and that there is at last some degree of unity among his leading players.

"If you can't prevent a problem from happening in the first place, then it's just as well to make sure it's addressed properly," said Kuhn yesterday. "There can be a danger in letting these things fester, so instead we've all spoken very directly and cleared up the matter. I think the team has actually come out all the stronger from this so-called low."

How well the peace holds up remains to be seen but the Swiss coach insists he is optimistic about his side's prospects, an outlook that will be boosted by the prospect that the side's most influential player, Hakan Yakin, will prove himself fit in time to play tomorrow.

"I'm getting better every day," said the FC Basel midfielder yesterday. "I was shooting in practice today and didn't have any pain. I think I'm going to be fit. The final decision is not made yet but I'm very hopeful."

Kerr said that he took the reports regarding Yakin's improving fitness at face value and that the team would complete their preparations in the expectation that he will probably feature for the home side tomorrow.

"They'll certainly want him to play, he has done in every other game until the trip to Russia which he missed through injury, and I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind about how important it is to them that he's a part of it on Saturday."

Kerr's own concerns with regard to fitness remain extremely minor with only Matt Holland showing any signs of strain in yesterday afternoon's 90-minute training session at the St Jakob Park Stadium. The Ireland manager insisted that the difficulties encountered by the midfielder were of little significance and put the problem down to Holland having eaten too little during and immediately after the journey to Switzerland.

He was, he said, pleased with the way the preparations were proceeding and satisfied that Robbie Keane and Gary Doherty had both come through the afternoon's fairly rigorous run-out without any signs of difficulty.

"We've still got another session and a day in the hotel to go so I don't want to get carried away," he said, "because somebody could still pick up a knock or catch a bit of a cold but so far it's gone as well as we could have hoped and we'd be hopeful that there won't be any hitches between now and the kick-off."

Though there were regular switches during the various practice games which made up yesterday's session there was evidence that Kerr and the rest of the Irish management team were continuing to assess the performances of Damien Duff on the right side of midfield, David Connolly up front and Steve Finnan at left back with John O'Shea switching inside to partner Gary Breen in central defence.

"You can take what you like from it," laughed Kerr afterwards, "because I think nearly all the lads had a go in more than one position but I don't think there'll be any huge surprises, I've seen everybody's been having a go at guessing for the past week or so and very few of the attempts have been all that far off the mark."

Kerr says that he will be kept well informed of how the group's other game is unfolding but the manager has also arranged that every potential opponents in the play-off stages will be watched this weekend. While he has been occupied with the ongoing preparations for tomorrow's game here and, he said, concerned for the wellbeing of Charlie Chawke who he described as "a good friend of Irish football and sport generally," he said that his players have been distracted, to some extent, by the dramatic events in the England camp.

"Obviously some of the lads would know players in the England set-up and they've all been talking about what's been going on. I've been following it a bit myself and wondering what it would be like if it was us.

"The drugs thing is a huge issue but as a manager you'd always want to put your best side out so maybe you're not in the best position to see the bigger picture . . . which isn't to say that Rio shouldn't play but just to say that you tend to see things in a particular way."