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Luis Suarez is working hard to recover in time to play for Uruguay at the World Cup, but coach Oscar Tabarez is uncertain if he will be available for the group stage. The striker had surgery on his left knee on May 22, and is in a race to face Costa Rica in Uruguay's opener against Costa Rica on Saturday, followed by England on June 19 and Italy five days later. Uruguay have been slowly increasing his workload in training, though the medical staff has kept him apart from the rest of the squad. Tabarez said Suarez is "responding very well." "As we have no set deadlines, I don't know if we'll have him for the first match, for the second, for the third, he said, according to the BBC. "If it were up to me, Suarez would play tomorrow." Teammate Christian Rodriguez said Suarez was working extra hard to be fit. "He is very focused," Rodriguez said. "He is working in double and triple shifts and we hope to have him with us soon." Argentina legend Diego Maradona hailed Suarez as "the best forward a team can have" and backed him to recover quickly. "He is going to be just fine because he has balls and in soccer, without balls you don't get anywhere. He is going to break them," Suarez told Uruguay newspaper El Observador. Maradona also said he admires La Celeste's other strikers, Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan, and would like them on his team, though he would prefer Suarez. He said there are no players like Suarez in Argentina's ranks. "We have Tevez but we took the luxury of leaving him out," Maradona said.
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