Reid in cotton wool after a groin niggle

There is a slight concern over

All Whites captain Winston Reid five days out from the World Cup Intercontinental playoff against Costa Rica in Doha.

The key defender sat out yesterday’s 0-0 draw against Oman with a groin niggle, sustained towards the end of Thursday’s training session.

However, All Whites coach Danny Hay is optimistic Reid will make the cut and the 33-year-old was sprinting before the game to test the movement.

“We need to see how he comes through that but we’re confident he should be right by the time we play Costa Rica,” said Hay.

The coach added Reid is “positive” and knows his body well after a spate of injuries the past four years. But it will be a nervous wait, given his importance to the cause and means Reid will likely miss at least half of the four remaining training sessions.

“We will wrap him in a little bit of cotton wool over the next couple of days and start ramping things up towards matchday,” said Hay.

Reid has been unlucky before, missing the 2013 Mexico playoff series after being injured at West Ham training.

Crowd building for showdown

Around 9500 tickets have already been sold for the Intercontinental playoff match on Wednesday.

That’s modest by the usual standards of these playoffs but underlines the problem of hosting the game in a neutral venue such as Qatar, where most locals are apathetic about going to matches, unless they feature the very biggest names, while the migrant workers have neither the time nor money.

More than 2500 Costa Ricans are expected to make the trip, with somewhere between 500-1000 New Zealanders, which should provide a brilliant atmosphere, given the impressive acoustics in the design of the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium.

Temperature hits record

The mercury reached 50 degrees on Thursday afternoon in Doha, apparently a record for June. It was punishing; any time you left the air conditioning, the contrast was staggering. One All White told the Herald he tried to go for a coffee, just around the corner, but even over such a short distance, felt the wall of heat.

Security presence ramps up

The security detail around the All Whites will be more prominent over the next five days, in the countdown to the Costa Rica clash.

Though Qatar is one of the safest countries in the world, organisers are taking no chances, with police escorts for the All Whites from now on.

But it may not be on the scale of the operation in Barcelona, where the New Zealand team had six riot police (and well as other officials) shadow their every moment on match day against Peru.

Hay wary of gamesmanship

All White coach Hay has raised his concerns around Costa Rica’s use of the “dark arts”, given what is at stake next Wednesday.

There is expected to be plenty of gamesmanship from the Central American team, seen as part of the football culture of the region.

“I’ve read comments from the likes of [Costa Rica and former Arsenal striker] Joel Campbell that it is part of their game that they utilise, that they grow up learning, and we have to be fully aware of that,” said Hay. “We don’t want to get drawn into a game that is going to suit them and not us.”

Hay said strong refereeing will be paramount.

“That is going to be critical, that we get officials that are not falling for any of the dark arts, a lot of the diving, the feigning, trying to win needless or cheap free kicks. At the same time, we can’t give the referee any opportunity to blow his whistle in dangerous areas.

“We will have to defend well and defend properly, not diving in, staying on our feet, being aggressive without making too much contact, where they can go down under that contact.”