Denmark in good shape

Morten Olsen was full of optimism today as Denmark's injury worries began to ease five days before their UEFA EURO 2004™ opener against Italy.

Improved situation
With Jesper Grønkjær still in Denmark due to a family illness, only Martin Jørgensen and Peter Løvenkrands were unable to train - a situation the coach compared favourably to that two years ago ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan.

Lovenkrands recovering
Olsen did not reveal whether Grønkjær would arrive in Portugal by Monday but was relaxed about both Jørgensen's thigh injury and Lovenkrands' troublesome knee. "Peter Løvenkrands' knee swelled up dramatically at morning training, but returned to normal quickly, and I am not nervous about him at all," the coach said after afternoon training.

Jensen trains
Claus Jensen and Thomas Helveg both took part in training after sitting out the main session yesterday. "Claus has an ongoing thing with his hip, but he knows his own body well enough to know when he has to take it easy and when not," explained Olsen.

Better shape
Overall, Olsen is pleased that his side's physical shape is much better than prior to the World Cup, where Denmark won their group before a second-round defeat by England. "We can simply measure that," he said of the daily monitoring of his players' condition.

Playing form
However, he added: "Physical shape is one thing - playing shape is another. In that respect you always go to the first match at a major tournament with a lot of question marks as a coach. Up until then everything has just been friendlies, and therefore you never really know your team's actual shape until the first match.

Key to success
"One thing is for sure, though. In order to be successful at a tournament like this you have to be in good shape, you need some luck, and you need to be free of injury. This applies particularly to the smaller nations, who do not have so many players to pick from."