Italy received yet another blow before the World Cup in Germany. One of the most determined and influential players of Lippi's squad, AC Milan's Genaro Gattuso will miss the first two games of Italy in the group stage. The news came earlier today, when the midfielder suffered a thigh injury in a preparation game.

Despite the fact that Lippi will have to replace him in the "first team" against Ghana and USA - since the doctors said Gattuso would have to stay on the bench for at least 15 days - the Italian coach refuses to let him go by calling up somebody else: "I will only replace him on the team, not in the squad. Genaro will come with us and I hope to have him back as soon as possible".

This is not the first such problem that Lippi has to deal with before the World Cup opener against Ghana. Midfielder Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus) is also set to miss at least the Ghana encounter due to a foot injury, while Captain Francesco Totti is not fully fit to play a beginning-to-end match.

Moreover, the Italian team did not have a quiet preparation session since the end of the Serie A season. Most of the players - and coach Marcello Lippi too - had to walk their way all over to Rome in order to answer the magistrates questions concerning the "Juventus affair".

Italy is one of the few - if not the only one - countries to not have played a friendly match before the FIFA World Cup gets under way. What effect will that have on the team, we can only wait and see.

Ireland's former star, Ian Rush, currently a football expert for a sports channel, stated that Italy are a morale team, that could go all the way in the competition - despite its poor training so far - on the condition that they start off well with Ghana. If not, we could see another World Cup with Italy crawling their way back from Germany before the knockout stages.