5/16/2006
IRNA

Iranian national football team star players, Vahid Hashemian and Ali Karimi, will be fit for Iran's opening World Cup game against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11, a top Iranian football official announced late Monday night.

"Based on the latest consultations which head coach Branko Ivankovic had with Hashemian and Karimi as well as their respective team doctors, they will have no problems whatsoever to accompany the Iranian national squad during the World Cup," the technical director of the Iranian team, Homayoun Shahrokhi told IRNA.

Hannover's Hashemian suffered a knee injury in his team's Bundesliga match at Mainz 05 on April 8, while Bayern's Karimi injured his knee ligaments in his squad's encounter with Bundesliga rivals Hamburger SV in late March.

According to Shahrokhi, the general state of the national team is ideal and the overall results of the 10-day training camp in Switzerland were very satisfactory.

He added the Iranian national team will hold another training camp in Tehran before traveling to their German World Cup base in Friedrichshafen on June 4.

Iran is to play test matches against Croatia and Bosnia on May 28 and 31.