 Ljungberg suffered the injury six weeks ago |
Sweden's Freddie Ljungberg should miss the group stage of the World Cup to fully recover from a foot injury, says team doctor Anders Valentin. The speedy Arsenal midfielder, one of Sweden's most important players, is likely to play through the pain of the injury, suffered six weeks ago.
"He would need to rest for four weeks to completely recover," Valentin told Swedish TV.
"He might not be completely without symptoms at the finals."
Ljungberg will be sidelined for Sweden's friendly against Finland on Thursday and is also likely to miss the warm-up match with Chile on 2 June.
At the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where Sweden reached the second round, Ljungberg played only two of their four matches because of injury.
Sweden have been drawn with England, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago - their opening opponents on 10 June - in Group B.
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