Soccer: Brown keeping one foot on plane

Tim Brown. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Injured All Whites vice-captain Tim Brown has given a clear hint he will be on the plane to South Africa for the World Cup.

"If it was 50-50 before the surgery, I think it's edging in my favour at the moment," Brown told the Weekend Herald. "I'm more than likely to get there than not."

Wednesday is D-Day, when he will have another consultation with the surgeon who put three screws into the shoulder he busted against Australia a fortnight ago.

Two days ago he had a check-up that indicated his shoulder had healed well. Considering that Brown is trying to squeeze a six-week recovery into three weeks, every piece of good news is treated like manna.

"The first big hurdle was the surgery, which went really well," Brown said. "The second one was the check-up to make sure it had healed properly and that was positive. The final step is making this decision on Wednesday."

On Thursday, the 29-year-old midfielder said goodbye to an unwanted apparatus.

"I got the sling off. It was driving me nuts, every time I looked in the mirror it made me look like a cripple," he said.

That was followed by his first extended walk and today he will lace up the sneakers for his first jog since the injury. Trotting alongside him on the streets of Auckland will be younger brother Paul, who downed tools from his job in Wellington to help Brown through every step of his rehab.

Nothing exemplifies the country's new-found passion for soccer like the torrent of goodwill extended to Brown, and the interest in his recovery.

"Everyone is saying nice things about me," he said. "I feel like I'm at my own funeral."

After the All Whites upset 15th-ranked Serbia last weekend, Brown, a self-confessed "poor watcher", started to get anxious.

"If I'm nervous about anything, it's that we're doing too well. There's almost an expectation we're going to cruise through our pool and give The Netherlands the hurry-up in the second round.

"The size of the challenge is immense and the friendly games, while important, don't mean much."

It sounds like the sort of talk that would come from a man convinced he will be part of that challenge.

"I'm trying not to get ahead of myself but ... I want to go over there and I want to play and I want to score a goal in the World Cup. But I can't think about that too much because I just went for my first walk today."