China's Defender Fan Returns from Injury

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 31, 2002

China's Defender Fan Returns from Injury

China's key defender Fan Zhiyi backed to practice on Thursday for the first time since he suffered a muscle strain in his leg some two weeks ago.

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China's Defender Fan Returns from Injury

China's key defender Fan Zhiyi backed to practice on Thursday for the first time since he suffered a muscle strain in his leg some two weeks ago.

Fan, the newly crowned Asian Player of Year, took some warm-up jogging and footwork at the beginning by himself and then attempted some heading attacks in the next half hour

When the teams was divided into two sides for a practicing game, Fan was called to join his match by China's Yugoslav head coach Bora Milutinovic. But he did not touch the ball much during the game, only tried to run the field with his teammates.

The Chinese veteran defender, used to play in English first division club Crystal Palace, hurt his left leg two weeks ago and missed China's last warm-up match against Portugal who won the game 2-0 in Macao.

Fan still has five day to nurse his leg before the Chinese team play their first Group B game against Costa Rica on June 4th.

"Fan is now in a day-to-day situation and what I can say is that he is in a fit shape." Milutinovic said when he was asked if Fan will be listed into China's starting lineup.

Fan, 31, is a regular starter for China and has competed in four World Cup qualifying tournaments before finally made the Korea-Japan-hosted World Cup final .

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