McCarthy out of South Africa's WCup squad

Host South Africa left all-time top scorer Benni McCarthy out of its World Cup squad on deadline day Tuesday while Gareth Barry hoped that good news from a fitness checkup would put him among England's 23. Although many of the 32 qualifiers have already named their final squads ahead of FIFA's deadline of 2200 GMT on Tuesday, defending champion Italy and former winners Germany and England were among those to leave it until the final day. So was the host country, which made the widely expected decision not to include McCarthy. The 32-year-old striker, who has scored 32 goals in 78 games for South Africa, has struggled with fitness and form all season while playing in England for Blackburn then West Ham. "It was a sad thing to have to split apart our family," coach Carlos Alberto Parreira told a news conference as he announced the six players who will not play in the first World Cup to be staged in Africa. "But I told them, 'Put your heads up, life goes on. All of you deserve to be here'. Unfortunately we have to obey FIFA rules and we can only name 23." South Africa kicks off the competition against Mexico on June 11, and then faces former World Cup winners Uruguay and France in its group. South Korea, Slovakia and Greece also named their squads on Tuesday with no major surprises, although the Slovaks named two strikers who are recovering from injuries. Filip Holosko broke his leg last year and was not able to train with the team until Monday while Robert Vittek has been sidelined with a knee injury. Neither player was able to play in Saturday's 1-1 warmup draw with Cameroon at Klagenfurt, Austria. "It was a tough decision," coach Vladimir Weiss said Tuesday. "Holosko isn't 100 percent fit. Or, he may be fit but we don't know what to expect in a real match. It's the same with Vittek. We'll see in the next few days." Slovakia's first group game is against New Zealand on June 15 and it then meets Paraguay and Italy. Defender Kwak Tae-hwi, who injured his knee in Sunday's 1-0 warmup loss to Belarus, is out of the South Korea squad and was replaced by Kang Min-soo. Coach Huh Jung-moo cut three more players from his provisional squad, leaving midfielders Ku Ja-cheol and Shin Hyung-min and Japan-based striker Lee Keun-ho behind. "Lee Keun-ho hasn't been able to get over his poor run of form," Huh said. "Shin Hyung-min didn't look sharp against Belarus, and it's unfortunate but Ku Ja-cheol wasn't selected." The 2002 World Cup semifinalist faces European champion Spain in a warmup match on Thursday in Innsbruck before leaving for South Africa for Group B games with Greece on June 12, Argentina five days later and Nigeria on June 22. Greece coach Otto Rehhagel, who led the team to a surprise Euro 2004 triumph and had already trimmed his squad to 25, left out midfielder Grigoris Makos and defender Giorgos Tzavelas. Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who guided the team to its fourth World Cup triumph in Berlin four years ago, has to cut five players from its squad, with forwards Marco Borriello, Fabio Quagliarella and Giuseppe Rossi most at risk. Germany coach Joachim Loew hopes to take as many as six strikers, although he may have to change his plans because of injuries to midfielders. Striker Miroslav Klose was top scorer at the last World Cup but he has not been a regular starter with Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich and could miss out. England manager Fabio Capello, who seems set to confirm he will stay on after the World Cup, said he knew his 23 but is waiting for the results of a fitness check on midfielder Barry, who has not played or trained since damaging ankle ligaments playing for Manchester City against Tottenham on May 5. Barry has been a regular starter under Capello and, if the results of the test are encouraging, the manager may put him in the squad even though he may not be fit enough to play in the opening game against the United States June 12. England then faces Algeria and Slovenia.