Deisler injury new blow to Germany

Germany suffered another potentially serious blow to their World Cup plans yesterday when Sebastian Deisler was injured during their final World Cup warm-up match in Leverkusen. The highly-rated midfielder was taken to hospital after falling to the ground clutching his right knee following a challenge on the Austrian striker Rolf Landerl.

Germany's coach, Rudi Völler, said: "All we know is that nothing's torn and nothing's broken but he's in a lot of pain. We have to wait to find out exactly how serious the injury is and we can only hope that it's not too bad."

Völler hinted that he would not take Deisler to the Far East unless his knee had healed properly. "Sebastian is a very important player for us but the most important thing is his career and his health," he said.

Deisler, who has also had a thigh problem recently, has very little time to recover before the World Cup starts on 31 May, and his latest setback is a further blow to Germany. Völler has already lost Jens Nowotny, Mehmet Scholl and Christian Wörns through injury, and Christian Ziege and Marko Rehmer are not fully fit.

One highlight for Völler last night was the form of Miroslav Klose, who scored a hat-trick as Germany thrashed Austria 6-2.

Liverpool's Vladimir Smicer scored in Prague last night as the Czech Republic, who unexpectedly lost Belgium in the World Cup play-offs, beat one of the favourite to win the trophy, Italy, 1-0.

Belgium produced another surprise last night when Marc Wilmots drove a first-time right-foot shot into the roof of the net in the last minute to give them a 2-1 win over the holders, France, in Paris.

Frank Leboeuf was partly responsible for that goal but earlier had brought a cheer of relief from the home fans among the 80,000 crowd at the Stade de France when his shot was deflected into his own net by Timmy Simmons for the French equaliser.

Belgium had silenced them by taking the lead after 19 minutes when Glen de Boeck headed in Mbo Mpenza's corner, and the home fans then suffered as a French side including Vieira, Petit and Wiltord, but without Zinedine Zidane, wasted several chances

Michal Zewlakow scored the only goal as Poland beat Estonia 1-0 in Warsaw in their final warm-up before travelling to Korea but disappointed their fans with their lack of invention and poor finishing.

Denmark warmed up with a 2-1 win over Cameroon in Copenhagen thanks to an own goal from Lucien Mettomo and a Jon Dahl Tomasson penalty. Modeste Mbami pulled one back. Denmark's coach, Morten Olsen, said: "Cameroon gave us severe problems. Physically they were on top of us; even Thomas Gravesen lost the direct duels and that says a lot." Denmark have another African qualifier, Senegal, in their group.