Colombia boss Jose Pekerman hints at James Rodriguez start against Poland

Colombia head coach Jose Pekerman has expressed his hopes of James Rodriguez being "in 100% form" for Sunday's crunch World Cup Group H clash against Poland at the Kazan Arena.

The attacking midfielder, who won the Golden Boot as top scorer in Brazil with six goals, has been struggling with a muscle injury and played the last 30 minutes of Colombia's 2-1 loss to Japan as a substitute.

Pekerman, who oversaw Colombia's impressive run to the quarter-finals four years ago, has however, hinted that Rodriguez would be in his starting XI for the Poland game.

"Definitely, James Rodriguez is a vital player for our national squad," Pekerman told a news conference on Saturday.

"James is doing very well in training and he played a number of minutes in the last match, which has given him some confidence.

"There were a number of things we had to fine tune and we really hope he will be in 100% form tomorrow."

Only once before have Colombia lost both of their opening two games in a World Cup tournament, doing so against Romania and the United States in 1994.