Barcelona defender Edmilson has pulled out of Brazil's World Cup squad due to an injury to his right knee, team doctor Jose Luis Runco said yesterday.

Sao Paulo's Mineiro, 30, will come in to the squad after a scan showed Edmilson had a torn meniscus. Brazil's soccer federation said the player had been experiencing pain and movement difficulty in the joint.

"He had a rupture on the lateral side of the meniscus of the right knee, it's an injury that makes him unfit to compete," Runco told a news conference.

Edmilson made headlines in Brazil this week after exchanging rough tackles with striker Adriano in practice.

Mineiro is from the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. The highlight of his career was scoring the winning goal for Sao Paulo against Liverpool in the FIFA World Club Championship final in Japan last year.

With Sao Paulo, he also won the Paulista title and the Libertadores Cup.

Brazil launch their World Cup campaign against Croatia in Berlin on June 13. Their other Group F opponents are Australia and Japan.

¤ Freddie Ljungberg is set to return from a foot injury in tomorrow's friendly with Chile, Sweden's last warm-up match before the World Cup. "If nothing spectacular happens, he's in," coach Lars Lagerback said. The Arsenal midfielder pulled out of last week's friendly against Finland which Sweden drew 0-0 and has trained only a handful of times over the past 10 days.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.