Ronaldo back from injury

Ronaldo boosted Brazil's World Cup hopes on Tuesday after winning his battle to recover from a thigh injury, while the bidding for World Cup tickets on eBay gathered pace despite warnings from German organisers.

The Real Madrid striker missed the last six weeks of the Spanish season but his national team coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, is satisfied with his recovery.

"It seems that Ronaldo is better, he's been working with the ball and doing exercises of medium intensity," Parreira told reporters.

"Ronaldo has been running and he just needs to regain match fitness. His weight is perfect."

Parreira intends to field Ronaldo in Brazil's opening Group F match against Croatia on June 13, even though the 29-year-old will only regain full match fitness during the tournament.

Although the soccer extravaganza does not kick off for another 17 days, bids for tickets to the July 9 final in Berlin on an online auction site ran into thousands of dollars.

The highest amount offered for two "category 2" tickets was 4,343 euros (2,963 pounds) on Germany's eBay auction portal at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, compared with the official price of 720 euros.

Soccer fans are willing to pay such vast amounts even though tournament organisers have warned that they risk being turned away at the stadiums.

For security reasons, tickets for the month-long tournament starting on June 9 are personalised with the buyer's name and are not transferable except under special circumstances.

The seller explained that the tickets would have to be officially transferred into the name of the winner.

"I won these tickets in a lottery. They still have to be personalised -- in your name and that of one more person. Absolutely serious and without risk," the seller declared.

Another pair of final tickets had a top bid of 3,577 euros.

SUFFERED SETBACK

On the other side of the world, South Korea's preparations for the tournament suffered a setback when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Senegal in a friendly in Seoul.

In the first of the Asian country's four warm-up matches before the World Cup, Kim Do-heon's 74th minute strike was cancelled out five minutes later by Moussa Ndiaye's equaliser.

However, South Korea coach Dick Advocaat did not want to read too much into the result against the African side who failed to qualify for Germany.

"It was an excellent exercise for us especially on the physical side," said Advocaat, whose team play their opening Group G game against Togo on June 13.

"Defensively we still made some mistakes but we still have three weeks to find out, and we will find out, the reason."

Barcelona midfielder Xavi is hoping the success of Spanish clubs in Europe this season will rub off on the national team.

They have not got past the World Cup quarter-finals since 1950 but following Barcelona's Champions League triumph and Sevilla UEFA Cup success, Xavi feels Spain could make the breakthrough this year.

"I hope that Spain performs as well as its clubs have performed in Europe this season," the Barca playmaker told reporters at the squad's training camp on Tuesday.

"We have players in the squad who have had some great successes this season and we hope they can repeat them when they play for Spain."