Just 45 days now until Australia's opening World Cup match against Germany in South Africa. But will it be the Socceroos or the Crockeroos turning out?

Fitness doubts remain over several of the team's big names.

They all say they are right to go. They would, though, wouldn't they? Who's going to hand in a sick note for the World Cup?

Should we trust the players to assess their readiness for the ardours of a World Cup finals campaign? Even if they have managed to shrug their injuries in time for the opener, will they be sufficiently match hardened?

Coach Pim Verbeek has warned his men they will need to be fit and playing regularly to be selected. Tough talk, but he has usually played it safe throughout his soon-to-finish tenure, picking his big guns from Europe whenever they are available.

For such high stakes as the World Cup, however, the Dutchman might be forced into making some tough decisions and bold choices when he names his 23-man squad.

Harry Kewell says he is ready to play after a long lay-off with a groin injury, but he was not selected last weekend for Galatasaray's goalless draw with Bursaspor, in which fellow Socceroo Lucas Neill was sent off.

Kewell has been battling injuries for the bulk of his career. He seems particularly prone to pelvic-area ailments; hernias, groins, adductor muscles. If he is halfway fit he will be picked, no doubt, but if he continues to be restricted, his best role might be off the bench as an impact player.

Striker Josh Kennedy says he, too, is fit, though he has missed Nagoya Grampus Eight's past two matches in the J-League with a back injury. Just a precaution he reckons.

Mark Bresciano says he is making rapid progress after having surgery on a troublesome disc in his back and hopes to be back playing for Palermo by the end of the season. The back problem had affected his form but the fact is he lost his place in the team before the operation.

His good mate Vince Grella has had a second injury-interrupted season at Blackburn, managing just 16 games and missing good chunks of the season, as he did last season after crossing from a decade in Italy. His latest niggle was to a calf.

Craig Moore left Brisbane for Greece to maintain form and fitness right up to the finals, but came home early saying he needed a rest and would find a state league club to train on with. I guess we should trust the 34-year-old veteran to be able to best read his body.

Impressively, the Gold Coast's Jason Culina has kept things ticking over since the conclusion of the A-league season by training with former club PSV Eindhoven.

Culina's Gold Coast teammate, the 18-year-old Tommy Oar, is the bolter in South Africa calculations. The teenage winger earned rave reviews in his debut A-league season and won his first senior international cap in the Asia Cup qualifying win against Indonesia last month. He will join Dutch side Utrecht next season.

Kewell, with whom Oar has been compared, made an immediate impact when he made his Socceroos debut at the same age, scoring twice in the epic losing World Cup qualifier against Iran in 1997.

Just throw the new kid in.

In the meantime, let's pray that the team's most valuable assets - goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and chief goalscorer Tim Cahill - can maintain their fitness and excellent form after a long season in the English Premier League (and Europe also in the Fulham keeper's case) and arrive in Durban with enough left in the tank to lead the charge through the group phase.