Wednesday 05-03-03 01:28

QUARTERFINAL COMES TOO SOON FOR SHINJI

Shinji Ono will definitely miss Wednesday’s Amstel Cup tie with Vitesse as the Japanese defender continues to be too unwell to leave his sickbed. ‘Shinji has been in bed for three days with a fever,’ confirmed coach Bert van Marwijk, ‘so he definitely won’t play. But there are more players who are not feeling too well. They have made the training pitch on character alone. So I’ll have to do a bit of puzzling tomorrow.'

It would appear that the virus that laid most of Juventus low a couple of weeks ago has reached Rotterdam. Paul Bosvelt is still shaking off the last of his sickness and his stand-in Kike Acuña is not fully fit either. Van Marwijk: ‘I asked Kike this morning if he was feeling better. He said “Si!” I told him, ‘I think you’re telling a porky,’ in Dutch, and I think he understood well and good what I meant. In any case I’ll have to do a bit of puzzling tomorrow, because I have to wait and see who’s fit.’