Things on track says Arnold

Socceroos assistant coach Graham Arnold has said concerns over injured players Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill are easing with both progressing well and increasing their training.

Socceroos assistant coach Graham Arnold has said concerns over injured players Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill are easing with both progressing well and increasing their training.

Arnold gave the first indications into the fitness of the injured midfielder Harry Kewell, declaring he is confident he will be back to full training within a day or two.

Kewell, who has been rehabilitating after suffering another abductor injury during the FA Cup Final win over West Ham earlier this month, has so far trained away from the rest of the team under constant surveillance from the Australian medical team.

"He is running 85-90% now, so I think he is only a day or two days off returning to full training," said Arnold. "As long as he keeps progressing in the manner he is progressing in, that-s the most important thing."

"It will be great to have him back on board, but at the same time he has missed two weeks of very hard and intense sessions, so he has a lot of catch up to do."

Asked if he would be a consideration for the Liechtenstein game on June 7, Arnold was hopeful he would play a role.

"Obviously we-ll want to get him on the field for that game, because Liechtenstein is our last hit-out and Harry-s got to gel into the side, structurally as well. He-s got to know what his job is and roles are, because it-s about the team not about the individual."

Also looking good at training was key midfielder Tim Cahill, who is moving freely and looks to have well and truly overcome his knee injury, especially given the intensity shown by the players in training.

"Timmy (Cahill), that's the best he has moved on the field since coming back and he is looking real good again," said a pleased Arnold.

Of a major interest to the Australian coaching staff and players was the performance of Japan against Germany in Leverkusen on Wednesday night. The Japanese came away with a creditable 2-2 draw and looked set for a win, but conceded two late goals to the World Cup hosts.

"Good, exactly what we expected," said Arnold, when quizzed on Japan's performance.

"They were very good technically, and quick as we have said before. Although, the Germans exploited them at set pieces aerially, which is something we looked at and have taken on board.

"Don-t forget you can-t take everything in friendly matches as gospel. Zico (Japanese coach), no doubt is till trying to get them to gel and work altogether. One thing is they are quite good at going forward, but there is obviously places, defensively, where we think we can exploit them."

Before that however, the Socceroos have an important date against The Netherlands on Sunday afternoon.

"We haven-t settled on the actual players, but the formation you saw against Greece, and that was the formation that we played in the second game against Uruguay, suits our players," said Arnold.

"We have got plenty of good options in midfield going forward, so it-s a matter of getting the good ones and the fittest ones out onto the field.”

"You saw against Greece how well we can play. However out of the starting XI, I think there is around seven that can improve on their own performance, so there is definitely room for improvement. Structurally there is room for improvement as well, because we picked things out of it that we weren-t happy with, with players changing their roles.

"We have done a lot of hard training, more than what any of the boys have done in the past, but they will benefit from it in the long run."

Arnold allayed fears that Craig Moore was still carrying an injury after he sat down in the second half of Tuesday-s morning session.

"Moorey-s okay, he just old," Arnold joked.

"He-s just got a little bit of soreness behind the knee due to fatigue. The field's just a little bit hard and he is used to the softer fields, but he is fine."