Harry Kewell has declared himself fit for Australia's opening game against Japan.
Harry Kewell has given coach Guus Hiddink a timely boost ahead of Australia's opening game against Japan by declaring himself fit.The Liverpool man had suffered a groin injury in the FA Cup final victory over West Ham that threatened to rule him out of the World Cup Group F opener on Monday.
As a result Kewell missed warm-up friendlies against both Greece and Holland but, after playing for an hour against European minnows Liechtenstein on Wednesday night, the talented performer has now come through training unscathed and says he is ready to star on the world's biggest stage.
"The groin's all right," said Kewell.
"We all sat down and decided I was going to play 60 minutes (against Liechtenstein) and I got through that fine.
"It was important for me to play in the game then back up in the training session today and that's what we did.
"We achieved that now and now we've got the game to look forward to."
The Socceroos have had a number of fitness concerns with Tim Cahill, Mark Schwarzer and Marco Bresciano all suffering in recent weeks, and captain Mark Viduka has become the latest player to be afflicted after being forced out of training on Thursday.
The Middlesbrough striker injured his leg in the warm-up, meaning he missed the two hour session to receive treatment from a physiotherapist, but Australia insist he will be fine to lead the side as they begin only their second ever World Cup campaign.
