[size=7]Kewell running lifts Australia's hopes[/size]
MICHAEL LYNCH
June 4, 2010
JOHANNESBURG: He came to South Africa and ran laps of the field. He spent hours training alone, doing stretches, warming up, jogging, but then looking on as his teammates simulated games and even played in a competitive match.

And on the eighth day Harry Kewell trained - not alone, but with the team. He ran, he warmed up, he did a slalom drill through agility sticks alongside his colleagues to prove that his troublesome groin was now good.

And then he played in the eight-a-side scratch matches overseen by coach Pim Verbeek and his staff.

The most watched man in the Socceroos squad seemed to move freely, energetically and enthusiastically as he chased down passes and ran and tried to dribble opponents while his blue-bibbed team sought to get the better of its orange-bibbed rivals.

Kewell's fitness - or lack of it - and his involvement and readiness for the World Cup has been dubbed the story that won't go away, the soap opera that has overshadowed Australia's preparations.

Even Verbeek felt moved to plead with reporters to focus on something else - such as the players who got the job done in the 1-0 win in the warm-up match against Denmark on Tuesday.

Verbeek even went so far as saying ''who cares about Harry?'' after that game before assuring the concerned millions back home that his squad's most enigmatic player would train on Thursday.

Well, Harry did.

But what Kewell himself makes of all the fuss and drama surrounding his well being remains the great unknown.

He sees everything and says nothing, seemingly content to live deep within his own world as the intensity around him swells.

Since entering camp with the squad in Melbourne in mid May, Kewell has made few media appearances. One came early in the piece when he took questions while doing some promotional work for his underwear sponsor.

It seems strange that on the day the talismanic Kewell finally put to rest many of the very real concerns about his fitness that he was again kept away from the cameras.

Could it have been him, not the unlucky Rhys Williams, heading home on a plane overnight?

In the current Socceroo squad Kewell will always be a focus.

Despite his injuries and the diminishing of his extravagant gifts as age and his body's weakness catch up with him (he will, after all, be 32 in September), he remains one of Australia's best players and one of the team's few genuine routes to goal.


http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/kewell-running-lifts-australias-hopes-20100603-x7ax.html