Ronaldo desperate to play in semi

Ronaldo last night revealed the measure of his desire to take the World Cup home to Brazil for the fifth time.

The striker is battling to be fit for tomorrow’s semi-final against Turkey here after being substituted against England with a thigh injury.

‘‘From one to 10 my desire is a 10,’’ said Ronaldo, who 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.

‘‘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 to try to win it. That’s what I’m here for.’’

Ronaldo 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.’’

Ronaldo, who has been undergoing intensive physiotherapy treatment and taking anti-inflammatory tablets over the past few days, will be monitored by medical staff over the next 24 hours and was due to take part in light training later today.

Brazilian doctor Jose Luiz Runco was hopeful that he 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.’’

There was much more interest in Ronaldo’s hair than in his fitness yesterday, however, after he took off his baseball cap to reveal a new style - a stubble of hair cut into the shape of a triangle. Was he trying to upstage David Beckham?

‘‘It’s a joke. I don’t want to take Beckham’s place,’’ Ronaldo said. ‘‘I try to look the way I want. It is just a way to release the tension.’’

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, apparently has approved it.

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.’’