Stockholm, May 23 (SW) - Sweden team doctor Anders Valentin has advised Freddy Ljungberg to ‘sit-out’ the initial opening matches for his national side during this year’s World Cup.
Sweden, drawn in group B along with England, Paraguay and Trindidad and Tobago, have their first two matches against Trinidad on the 10th June, and Paraguay 6 days later on the 16th.
"He would need to rest for four weeks to completely recover," Valentin told Swedish TV.
"He might not be completely without symptoms at the finals."
The Arsenal star is definitely out of the friendly against Finland on Thursday and there are no plans for him to appear in the planned warm-up match with Chile on June 2.
But Swede coach Lars Lagerback will be hard pressed to leave him out of the latter group stages, where the Arsenal star will be needed against teams like Paraguay and England.
This is familiar territory for Ljungberg. In the 2002 World Cup finals he only managed 2 appearances because of injury.