harrykewell

HARRY Kewell laughed and smiled his way through his latest work-out, completing a series of successful hour-long drills late Tuesday afternoon at Australia's training camp.

It was a radical step up in tempo from earlier in the week to include shuttle runs, step-overs, passing and shooting, with the added hindrance of a restraining harness.

Assistant coach Graham Arnold suggested Kewell will be fit to play in the Socceroos' final warm-up match, against Liechtenstein.

"Harry's not far away," he said. "He's running at 85, 90 per cent. He's maybe one, two days off full training, and it will be great to have him back on board. At the same time, he's missed two weeks of hard, intensive work, so he'll have some catching up to do."

A comeback appearance on Wednesday now looks more likely, with Arnold adding: "We'll want to get him on the field because Liechtenstein is our last hit-out, and Harry has to jell into the side, structurally as well."

Defender Craig Moore limped off the field with a sore knee and sat out the final 30 minutes of training, but should be fine to play against the Dutch on Sunday. "He's just old," joked Arnold.

Kewell left the session at Australia's Mierlo base smiling and waving to several local teenage girls who watched Australia train. He is expected to rejoin his teammates in training tomorrow, although Australia has planned a practice match, against amateur team VV Kloetingen, on that day ahead of Sunday's match against the Netherlands.

Kewell's daily routine consists of breakfast, physiotherapy, lunch, physiotherapy, rest, physiotherapy, dinner, and physiotherapy, broken only by an hour-long run with medical staff.

Team physiotherapist Les Gelis, handling Kewell's comeback, has placed posters of Groundhog Day star Bill Murray in his treatment room to demonstrate the monotony of the recovery program.

While Kewell will be absent, the weekend's matches will provide two more opportunities to decide who starts in goal for Australia.

Zeljko Kalac may start again against the Dutch, if only because he has had little game time this season with his club, AC Milan.

Tony Franken, Socceroos goalkeeper coach, said: "We know that Zeljko has not played much this season and we know what Schwarzer can do. That is a reason why Spider (Kalac) played against Greece. It gave the boss an opportunity to see what he can do.

"The rivalry (between Schwarzer and Kalac) is definitely there. It was there before Uruguay and it's great for the team that we have two or three keepers pushing," Franken said.

��Socceroos assistant coach Johan Neeskens has been offered the assistant role at European champions Barcelona, pushing Football Federation Australia into making a quick decision about his future. While Neeskens, who also has an offer to follow Guus Hiddink to the Russian national team, has made it clear he would prefer to stay with the Socceroos, he wants the FFA to make him an offer within a week.