See Crocked Luiz Suarez Looking Sombre In A Wheelchair

Luis Suarez is in a fight to face England at the World Cup after having surgery on a knee injury on Thursday. The Liverpool striker's participation in Brazil was thrown into doubt when he was hurt during a training session with Uruguay in the capital Montevideo on Thursday morning. Initial fears were that he could be sidelined for months rather than weeks. Uruguay wasted no time sending Suarez for an operation and he had the procedure late in the afternoon.

A Uruguay Football Association statement said: 'Luis Suarez after the normal warm-up felt an intense pain in his left knee. An MRI scan confirmed partial lesion of the external meniscus. 'He had an arthroscopy with a partial resection of the meniscus. His participation in the World Cup is not ruled out.'

It was also claimed Suarez suffered the injury in the final game of the season, when he was tackled by Newcastle's Paul Dummett. That led Uruguay fans to send online death threats to Dummett, who was sent off for the challenge but later had the decision rescinded. Suarez is upbeat about his prospects and before entering hospital told El Pais newspaper:

'Take it easy because I'm going to make it (to the World Cup) and will work very hard these days to be at 100 per cent and help out my team-mates.' Such is Suarez's importance to Uruguay that local reporters even contacted his mother for a diagnosis. She informed them: 'Everything went well. What Luis had wasn't as serious as we thought. He's going to play in the World Cup.'