Former England international Phil Neville has dismissed claims that Luis Suarez is fully fit after his knee surgery last month.

The Liverpool striker stated that he was "100%" fit for the game on Thursday evening, despite not having played for five weeks and going under the knife at the end of May.

However, Neville thinks that the La Celeste forward cannot possibly be in optimum condition, and he wrote in his BBC Sport column: "Luiz Suarez had an operation on his knee 26 days ago. I've had three or four operations on my knee and it is very difficult to recover fully in that time and be 100% fit.

"And I mean being fit to play the whole game, not just being fit after recovering from the operation. You need to train to be match fit and Suarez has not had time to do that.

"I don't think he can be 100% and, depending on his condition, this might actually be a good time to play Uruguay with Suarez in the team."

Uruguay lost their first game 3-1 to Costa Rica on Saturday.

Written by
Paul Gorst