One question and one alone hung heavily in yesterday's bright spring sunshine at Inter Milan's La Pinetina training ground in the foothills of the Alps. The boy Ronaldo - to play or not to play?

Faced with the inevitable inquiry as to whether the world's most famous footballer would feature against Manchester United in next Wednesday's Champions League tie at Old Trafford, Inter Milan's wily Romanian coach, Mircea Lucescu, smiled an impish smile, shrugged his shoulders and said only: "We'll see".

Even Italian football's most famous name, Roberto Baggio, could not avoid questions about his illustrious team-mate. Baggio, was asked to describe his teammate. "He's a nice quiet intelligent lad, experienced for all that he is young".

And how would you describe the Roberto Baggio of today? "Someone who, unfortunately, is 10 years older than Ronaldo . . ."

For a side allegedly in crisis and heading for a Champions League tie that could represent their last chance of salvaging something from a disappointing season, Inter were looking and sounding relaxed yesterday.

Facing the media troops of ESPN, CNN, BBC and ITV, Baggio and Lucescu acted as if they were about to face Leffe in a September second round Italian Cup tie: "Ok, so Ronaldo may not play and he's clearly important, but there are plenty of other good players in this squad," answered Baggio in response to another inevitable question on the implications of Ronaldo's probable absence.

Ronaldo only took part in his first team training session for five weeks yesterday, while he has not played in a competitive match since Inter were beaten 2-0 away to Bologna on January 17th.

English commentators, ever keen to hear that English soccer is on the improve, might be disappointed by Baggio's analysis of the current premiership.

"The arrival of all the foreign players, including the Italians, has clearly changed English soccer, but perhaps more technically than tactically. English soccer's strengths seem to me to be still . . . the traditional ones, a game in which players have a fierce desire to win every ball."

Baggio does not claim to know much about Manchester United, saying that he has hardly seen them play this season, but adding that, if they're out in front in England, then they "have to be very good".

Lucescu, on the other hand, believes he knows a thing or two about the men from Old Trafford, commenting with yet another impish grin: "Their strength is clearly their attacking game. They come forward in numbers but, in so doing, they leave spaces at the back that you might just exploit . . ."

With that, Lucescu smiles some more and heads off to give the Inter PR, Susanna Wermelinger, a big hug. If these are people under stress . . .