Tim Brown gets early taste of Cup fever

Tim Brown arrives at Johannesburg International Airport. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Mexican fan with the ice-hockey mask swarmed over to get a glimpse as soon as he saw police surround the new arrival.

A couple of South African women wondered if an English Premiership player had just arrived.

The little Indian man taking family snaps with the hand-held camera tried to muscle the New Zealand media contingent out of the way.

If Tim Brown wondered what the World Cup might be like, it didn't take long for him to get a taste of it when he stepped off the plane at the OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg.

It was like a rock star had just arrived in town. For Brown, it was just good to be in town. He was in South Africa and there were many times over the last two-and-a-half weeks when he didn't think he would make it.

"It's a good welcoming," Brown said as another vuvuzela sounded in the background of the arrival's hall. "It's great to be here. It's exciting."

There is still some way for Brown to go before he can be truly excited. On Wednesday he passed a fitness test on the shoulder he injured against Australia on May 24 but it's still not clear whether he will be fit enough to take his place in the 23-man World Cup squad.

The All Whites have until 24 hours before the first game against Slovakia on Tuesday to decide whether to include him or not. If they don't think he's ready, Cole Peverley will remain in the 23.

Brown met with team doctor Celeste Geertsena soon after touching down in South Africa and it was expected he would be put on a plan to continue to rehabilitate the shoulder.

It's hard to imagine he will be ready to play in the World Cup. But few gave him any chance of even getting to South Africa.

"I wouldn't want to say it's a medical miracle but it's healing pretty quickly," he said. "I'm certainly not healed. They thought it would be a six-week turnaround and we are two-and-a-half weeks into it. But by all accounts it's going really well.

"It feels great. I hope I can hit the ground running. I have come over here to play. Obviously it's one achievement to make it to this point. They reckon I am about three weeks ahead of schedule and I think I have done well to get to this point but there are a whole lot of other challenges because I want to play and really contribute on the field.

"I feel like it's in pretty good shape considering. Obviously there's a wee way to go but hopefully that will be pretty rapid and I will be training and playing at full speed pretty soon. I'm feeling pretty good and I'm confident I will be training fully pretty shortly.

"In my mind I can get into training pretty soon. As for this game on Tuesday, we will have to see."

With that, the police again surrounded Brown and he was whisked away to a waiting car to be driven to the team hotel.

Onlookers wondered what had just happened. Tim Brown might have been thinking the same thing.