Tunisia sweat on striker Msakni

Tunis: Tunisia are hopeful that their star performer in the qualifiers, Youssef Msakni, can recover in time to play in the World Cup finals in June after sustaining a knee injury at the weekend.

The forward, regarded as key to Tunisia’s hopes of upsetting Belgium and England in Russia, was said to have been ruled out of the tournament after rupturing cruciate knee ligaments in a Qatari league game on Saturday.

However, Tunisian reports suggested the injury might not be as serious as initially reported and that the Al Duhail forward might yet be fit for the tournament.

“It could be a partial rupture, in which case we would proceed with a small intervention that would allow him to recover quickly,” Tunisia team doctor Souheil Chemli said.