Midfielder Brett Emerton is confident the calf injury that has reduced him to a virtual Socceroos training camp spectator in South Africa won't destroy his World Cup.

Emerton has been ruled out of Tuesday's friendly against Denmark in Roodepoort because of the calf niggle which has kept him out of training for the past week.

The energetic midfielder describes his problem as "a muscle spasm" - and team medical staff and coach Pim Verbeek have refused to take any risks.

But Emerton is confident he will be fit enough for the World Cup opener against Germany on June 13 - and perhaps even the Socceroos' June 5 friendly against the United States.

"We're just being really cautious with it. After getting off a long flight we wanted to make sure we didn't have a recurrence of that," Emerton said.

"Physically I'm in good condition and we've got to look at the bigger picture, and that's that I'm ready to go come the first game against Germany.

"Missing one or two training sessions is going to have no impact on my fitness at all. Better now than in two weeks' time."

Verbeek put the red pen through Emerton and Harry Kewell for the Denmark match after neither trained during a willing and physical session on Saturday at the impressive St Stithian's College in Johannesburg's northern suburbs.

Both have been training ground cameo performers last week in Melbourne and now in Johannesburg.

Kewell didn't back up his Friday session with teammates, as medical staff spent Saturday working on his troublesome groin.

Verbeek hinted Emerton's injury is likely to mean game time against Denmark for Hull City wide midfielder Richard Garcia, who trained well on Saturday.

West Australian Garcia missed last week's friendly against New Zealand through injury.

"We have Garcia back on the field so we always have back-up for the upcoming games," Verbeek said.

"That's why it's good you have 23 players. You can always miss one or two players and have others to bring in."

Also in line to play Denmark after missing the 2-1 win over New Zealand in Melbourne last week is defender Luke Wilkshire.

The first-choice right-back has had stitches removed from his forehead following successful skin cancer surgery and is likely to slot straight into the starting side.

Verbeek believes the first three days of Australia's pre-World Cup training camp have exceeded expectations - the players dealing well with training at an altitude of 1700 metres above sea level.

"We've done better than expected. We've coped well with the time difference and the altitude so far," he said.

"I am very pleased so far with what we're doing."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP