Brazil lose Emerson to freak training injury

Brazil, who open their World Cup campaign against Turkey in Ulsan this morning, have suffered another serious setback to their already fraught preparations after their captain, Emerson, suffered an injury yesterday which has ruled him out of the entire competition.

The Roma midfielder dislocated a shoulder when playing in goal during a light-hearted training match and has returned home. Ricardinho, of Corinthians, has received a late call-up to fill the No 7 shirt in the Brazil squad.

Emerson's loss is a hammer blow to Brazil and their coach, Luis Felipe Scolari, who are under huge pressure to revive the nation's flagging reputation at these finals.

An unprecedented struggle in their South American qualifying group raised questions which the Brazilians need to answer against Turkey. At least they have Ronaldo back, though whether he has the phenomenal pace and power of old remains to seen, but Ronaldo himself believes Brazil are in better shape than they have been for a long time.

"We are in a great condition now," he said. "We have done a lot of research on the Turkish team and we know they are particularly strong in defence but I feel very confident that we can have a winning start."

Turkey are returning to the finals after a 48-year absence; they played in 1954 in Switzerland where they lost two games before beating South Korea 7-0.