Euroscene: Is time beginning to run out for world football's most famous despareceido, namely Brazilian Ronaldo? On Sunday night, while his club, Inter Milan, were taking a big step towards winning the Italian title by beating Roma 3-1 in a top-of-the-table clash at the San Siro, Ronaldo was training on a Rio de Janeiro beach.

Even though he was last seen in competitive action scoring two goals in Inter's 3-0 win over Verona on December 19th, Ronaldo has this week been called up for Brazil's friendly against Yugoslavia in Fortaleza, Brazil. Much attention will focus on that game, in the expectation Brazilian coach Felipe Scolari will play Ronaldo, at least for part of the match.

Scolari has played down concern about Ronaldo reaching full fitness for the World Cup. On the day he named his squad for this week's match, he said: "I don't know if and when he will be playing with Inter, but the doctors and national team physios who worked with him in Brazil in February claim he is ready for 90 minutes, he's just short of match practice. But I have got all of April and then 12 days of May in which to decide about him."

And there's the rub. Since he returned to Italy two weeks ago after spending six weeks in Brazil struggling to shake off a thigh strain, Ronaldo has not played for Inter. Despite Inter having been involved in decisive Serie A games and in a UEFA Cup campaign that has taken them to a semi-final clash with Dutch side Feyenoord, the club's canny Argentine coach, Hector Cuper, has overlooked Ronaldo.

Indeed, media speculation suggests that when Ronaldo turned up for training two weeks ago, he was surprised to be informed by Cuper he would not be considered for the club's important games.

On that same day, Ronaldo held a three-minute news conference in which he blamed the Italian media for "behaving badly towards me", but refusing to say anything further.

Lest there be any doubt about Cuper's reservations regarding Ronaldo, the coach spelt them out on Italian radio yesterday morning during a celebratory chat in the wake of Sunday night's 3-1 win over Roma.

"Ronaldo is worried not about the immediate future but about the future, full stop. He hasn't played for a long time, in truth, apart from three or four games, he hasn't played for the last three years. The problem is he is not 100 per cent fit, not fit enough to play consistently either for his country or for Inter."

Lest anyone fails to get the point, Cuper explained why his side has done well without Ronaldo.

"My Inter is now a real team. The skill and ability of class players are important, but they don't always swing a match your way. I know Ronaldo is a very important player on the world scene, but I like to think that players like him should think in terms of the team.

"A team has to play as a team, be compact. If it doesn't rely on two or three class players, then for me that's better."

Will Scolari soon be forced to a similar conclusion?