Holland’s Robben trains alone after hip alert

Holland’s injury-prone star wing Arjen Robben trained on his own after suffering a minor alarm over his hip, local media reported on Sunday, though there is apparently no concern over him failing to make the World Cup finals.

The 26-year-old — who is coming off a superb season with German champions Bayern Munich having scored 23 goals and reaching the Champions League final — came off early from Friday’s training session because a hip was causing him minor problems.

However, Robben, a veteran of Euro 2004 and 2008 as well as the 2006 World Cup finals, trained separately from the rest of the Dutch squad on Saturday simply as a precaution and a Dutch Federation spokesman said there was no cause for ‘alarm’.

The Dutch – two-time finalists in the 1970’s losing to West Germany in 1974 and Argentina in 1978 – play Africa Cup of Nations finalists Ghana in a friendly in Rotterdam on Tuesday and then Hungary in Amsterdam next Saturday.

They then fly to South Africa, where the finals run from June 11 to July 11, and where they have been drawn in Group E with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon.