Lagerback hopeful of Zlatan recovery

1:41pm Saturday 14th June 2008

Sweden coach Lars Lagerback is confident star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be fit to face Spain in Saturday's battle between the leading two sides in Group D.

Ibrahimovic netted his first international goal since 2005 with a wonder strike to help Sweden start their Euro 2008 campaign with a 2-0 win over holders Greece, but the Internazionale striker has been struggling with a knee problem.

"They say that there are some problems with his knees but he had no problem during training on Thursday, and he felt good on Friday, so it seems to have stabilised," said the Sweden coach.

However, right winger Christian Wilhelmsson is definitely absent as a hamstring injury has all but ended his tournament, while Lagerback admits right-back Niclas Alexandersson needs a "miracle" to have any chance of facing the Spanish in Innsbruck.

"We have 21 players available for our match so it's Niclas and Christian who cannot play, unless a miracle occurs with Niclas," Lagerback added.

"He did improve a great deal Friday, he did a rehab session earlier. We are hoping for Niclas but we are not expecting him to play."

Aside from those injury concerns though, Lagerback insists he has no other worries about the state of his team physically - despite 10 of the squad being 30 years old or more.