World Cup Digest

A round-up of the latest World Cup stories.

Del Horno is out of finals

SPAIN: Defender Asier Del Horno will miss the World Cup finals following new scans on his injured ankle.

The Chelsea left back suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon in his left ankle while preparing with Spain last week.

Fresh tests in Valencia yesterday revealed the severity of the injury.

There is speculation in Spain they will call up Getafe's Mariano Pernia to their 23-man squad while Deportivo La Coruna's Joan Capdevila has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Del Horno.

UKRAINE: XFK Kharkiv defender Olexander Yatsenko has been added to Ukraine's World Cup squad, the country's soccer federation (FFU) said yesterday. The 21-year-old replaces injured Serhiy Fyodorov in the 23-man squad.

Ukraine have three more tune-up matches -- against Italy, Libya and Luxembourg -- before taking on Spain in their World Cup opener on June 14th.

They also face Saudi Arabia and Tunisia in Group H.

Manager calls up son

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Manager Ilija Petkovic has defended his decision to include his son Dusan in Serbia and Montenegro's World Cup squad as an injury replacement. Former international Dragan Stojkovic called the decision scandalous while many fans used words such as "shame" and "disgrace" on the popular B 92 website, suggesting Petkovic resorted to "Balkan-fashioned nepotism"."Dusan Petkovic is a versatile player who can play either in defence or midfield and I believe he can be useful in our bid to do well at the World Cup," the manager said.

ITALY: Coach Marcello Lippi will give Francesco Totti his first start in more than three months against Switzerland in a friendly. The Roma striker has played once - a brief appearance in the second leg of the Italian Cup final - since fracturing a bone in his ankle on February 19th. He is now ready to form part of a three-man attack with Alessandro Del Piero and either Alberto Gilardino or Luca Toni in tonight's friendly in Geneva.

Domenech fed up

FRANCE: Coach Raymond Domenech is fed up with negative headlines in the build-up to the World Cup. "I'm tired of reading about what's going wrong," said Domenech. "There is a great atmosphere in the team. People keep stopping us to wish us well - that's what you should talk about but that does not make headlines." French preparations for the World Cup have not been smooth. The coach argued with his reserve goalkeeper, Gregory Coupet, who cannot accept being number two behind Fabien Barthez.

FRIENDLIES: World Cup hosts Germany came from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw with Japan in a warm-up game last night. Naohiro Takahara struck twice to give Japan a 2-0 lead by the 65th minute. Germany hit back when Miroslav Klose bundled in a Bastian Schweinsteiger free kick in the 76th minute. Four minutes later, Schweinsteiger headed in a Bernd Schneider free kick.

Other results: Poland 1 Colombia 2; Czech Republic 1 Costa Rica 0; Libya 1 Uruguay 2; Chile 1 Cote d'Ivoire 1; Tunisia 3 Belarus 0; Argentina 2 Angola 0.