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Zinedine: From bad to worse?

AFP, Seoul
Zinedine Zidane could miss all of France's first round matches in their defence of the World Cup and has been put under intensive treatment in a bid to limit the damage, the team doctor said Tuesday.
Zidane and France confirmed that he will miss at least the World Cup gala opening match between the defending champions and Senegal in Seoul on Friday because of the thigh muscle injury suffered in France's 3-2 defeat of South Korea on Sunday.
The world's most expensive player said he is hopeful of getting back for the second Group A match against Uruguay on June 6. Doctors indicated however that there is no guarantee that Zidane will even be able to play the third group match against Denmark on June 11.
"What is sure is that he will not play in the match against Senegal," French team doctor Jean-Marcel Ferret told a press conference. "Afterwards, anything is possible
between this match and, say, the second round."
Ferret added though that Zidane could make a speedy recovery.
France already has striker Thierry Henry battling knee problems though he is expected to play in the opening match and the loss of Zidane is a major blow to the preparations of coach Roger Lemerre. The team trained behind closed doors on Tuesday and Ferret insisted there was "no atmosphere of depression."
Zidane was the architect of France's 3-0 win over Brazil in the 1998 final in Paris and has continued to be one of the major players on the world stage. He scored a brilliant winning goal in Real Madrid's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the European Champions League final this month.
"The French group is obviously stronger with him. Zidane is an exceptional player and when he is in the team he always gives it life," Lemerre said Monday. Other players in the squad admitted the injury had been a major fright.
But French soccer legend Michel Platini said the injury was a chance for the French team to prove it is really the best.
"If France can get Zidane back for the second match that's good. If the French team is really strong it must be able to do without a player like Zidane for one or two matches," he said on the sidelines of the FIFA congress in Seoul.
In the worst case scenario, the Real Madrid playmaker could be missing until the second round. If France qualifies from its group, it would play its second round match in Japan on June 15 or 16.
Ferret said a daily evaluation of Zidane would be carried out and he would undergo between five and six hours treatment and therapy a day. The doctor said a Magnet Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan had confirmed a small tear of a muscle in the left thigh.
Zidane told the French daily Le Parisien of his hopes of being back for the second game.
"The MRI scan clearly shows a little (muscle) tear. It's not really a serious injury. I'm feeling pretty confident," Zidane said.
"Now I just have to rest three or four days and let nature do its work."
Ferret said that after the Senegal game, Zidane's return would depend on "the healing potential of the player to the treatment he will receive,"
He added: "The top players can heal faster and Zidane even more. He has no history of muscle injuries and I have high hopes."
Zidane has already started exercises aided exercises where his leg is moved without him taking the strain, Ferret said. "Then we will submit the muscle to activity which has already started: some bicycle, some swimming and then running.
"Finally we will leave the muscle when we consider that Zinedine is ready to resume a complete football activity."