Brazil national soccer team doctor Jose Luiz Runco told Mexican television channel Televisa on Friday that Ronaldo Nazario, the team's much-discussed striker, had been healthy for the whole of Brazil's World Cup debut versus Croatia.

"Nothing bad happened to the player neither before nor after the match," the medic said.

Ronaldo was substituted in the game against Croatia, and his mother later told Brazilian television that he had been feeling unwell.

"First of all, it is the most normal thing in the world for Ronaldo to speak with his family and for his mother to be worried, " Runco told media.

Although doctors had examined Ronaldo on Wednesday, after a Wednesday dizzy spell this had nothing to do with the substitution in the Croatia game, he said.

Ronaldo has been taking medicine to protect his stomach wall, and prevent gastritis, after the stronger medicine he was subjected to last week after he came down with a bronchial infection.

Ronaldo has suffered serious knee injuries which kept him out of action for several months at a time and arrived for World Cup training clearly overweight and out of practise.

Source: Xinhua