Ronaldo - trained on Monday night (Allsport).

By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer, Saitama

Click here to place your World Cup bets!
Click here for Brazil team section
Click here for teams index
Click here for latest World Cup headlines
Click here for World Cup photo gallery
Click here for World Cup Bettingzone

Ronaldo insisted on Monday he was not trying to upstage David Beckham in the fashion stakes after turning up for training with a bizarre triangular hairstyle.

The Brazilian star is still battling to be fit for the World Cup semi-final against Turkey on Wednesday after being substituted during the second-half of the match against England with a thigh strain.

He will be monitored by medical staff over the next 48 hours and although he took part in training this evening here, he was under strict orders to take it easy.

As it happened, however, there was much more interest in his hair than in his fitness after Ronaldo took off his baseball cap to reveal the new style - a stubble of hair cut into the shape of a triangle.

"It's a joke. I don't want to take Beckham's place. On the contrary he looks good. I try to look the way I want. It is just a way to release the tension," said Ronaldo, who had the idea for the new style when whiling away a few hours in his hotel room.

"There's no question at all about trying to take Beckham's place in any way."

The striker - who is the tournament's joint top scorer with five goals - has not decided whether to wear the style if he plays against Turkey, though his wife Milene Domingues, a former women's football player in Brazil and now a full-time model, has approved it.

Ronaldo's more serious business, however, is to pass a fitness test after undergoing intensive physiotherapy treatment and taking anti-imflammatory tablets over the past few days.

The Brazilian doctor, Jose Luiz Runco, was hopeful the striker would make it, but admitted he was still uncertain.

"We are trying to take it slow, slow with Ronaldo," said Runco. "In practice there was no complaint and no pain and we will continue to observe him.

"We asked him not to do any sprinting and everything went as expected."

When asked, however, if he could guarantee Ronaldo would play against Turkey and would be 100%, Runco said: "No".

"We are just hoping he can adapt and improve to be in the starting XI."

Ronaldo, however, is desperate to erase the memory of four years ago when he suffered a seizure before the final with France and walked around the biggest game of his life in a daze.

Since then he has been plagued by injuries for the best part of two-and-a-half years, undergoing two operations on his right knee and suffering three muscular injuries in quick succession.

He played only 13 games for Italian club Inter Milan last season and Brazil's friendly against Yugoslavia in March was his first international since October 1999.

At this World Cup, however, he has played five games in 16 days.

"I went two years without playing and now we have played a lot of games in a short space of time I'm more tired than the others," he said.

The measure of Ronaldo's desire, however, was clear.

"From one to 10 - it's a 10," he said. "Because this is the most important competition in the world.

"You have to give everything you can because it's once every four years. I have to do everything in order try to win it. That's what I'm here for."

He also revealed that the triumph against England in the quarter-final will stay in his memory forever.

"England have a great national team with great players," he said.

"It was such an important match and one of the most important moments in my football career."

Luizao would replace Ronaldo if he could not play against Turkey.

Brazil did have one scare in training when goalkeeper Marcos was injured taking a high cross.

He received treatment on the training pitch before being half carried away by two helpers and at first there were fears he would miss the semi-final.

Happily for Brazil it turned out to be nothing more serious than a painful dead-leg to the thigh. The goalkeeper is already prevented from taking goal-kicks because of chronic inflammation in his right ankle.

"He went off as a precaution," said Runco. "But there are no worries and he will train tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Rivaldo looked forward to meeting the Turks, against whom he feigned injury and received a FIFA warning for getting Hakan Ulsan sent off in the first match.

"The game's not going to be about revenge," said Rivaldo.

"Turkey should be grateful to Brazil because in the first round Brazil only needed to draw with Costa Rica and that would have put Turkey out.

"But we decided instead to play as strongly as we could."