Spain's Raul and Xavi confident of making World Cup

Spain captain Raul and midfielder Xavi are confident they will recover from serious knee injuries in time to play at the World Cup, says coach Luis Aragones.

"I've been following their progress very closely," Aragones said yesterday.

"I saw Raul a few days ago and he told me that everything was going well and that he would recover in time. When I spoke to Xavi on the phone he also assured me that he was recovering well."

Real Madrid's Raul tore the cruciate ligament and damaged the cartilage in his left knee in November and decided to follow a conservative programme of treatment so he could avoid surgery and play in the World Cup in June.

Barcelona midfielder Xavi had no choice but to go under the knife after tearing the cruciate ligament in his right knee in training at the start of December.

Aragones made his comments while making an inspection visit of Spain's World Cup training base in Germany on Friday.

The 67-year-old said he was delighted with the facilities in Kamen near Dortmund, the same base used by German teams for their successful 1974 and 1990 campaigns.

"We wanted to have a place where we wouldn't have to travel to the training pitches and we've got that here. The rest of the installations are magnificent," he said.

Aragones said the Spanish Football Federation was close to finalising the details of two warm-up matches against Egypt and Slovenia in the final weeks before the World Cup.