 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Year-ending injury Morientes to miss first world club game
Posted: Friday December 31, 1999 12:03 PM
MADRID (Reuters) -- Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes will miss his side's opening Club World Championship match in Brazil next week after limping out of training on Friday with a thigh injury. Morientes will be out of action for at least a week, Real doctors said after the team's final training session of 1999. Brazilian defender Julio Cesar has already been ruled out of the competition because of injury, while German goalkeeper Bodo Illgner is not expected to recover in time to make the trip. Spanish internationals Raul Gonzalez and Fernando Hierro are also struggling for fitness and are doubtful for Real's first game against Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia on January 5. Frenchman Nicolas Anelka, who scored his first goal for Real in a charity match on Thursday, is expected to take the place of Morientes in the starting line-up. Anelka's debut goal after his US$35 million move from English Premier League side Arsenal to Real last August was front page news in the Spanish sports press, with one newspaper joking: "Anelka scores -- millennium bug takes effect!"
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
