Holland head coach Marco van Basten has no regrets about having played their World Cup warm-up with Australia, despite having three players injured in their 1-1 draw on Sunday.

Even with SV Hamburg’s talented midfielder Rafael van der Vaart still an injury doubt for the Oranje, the so-called friendly saw the midfield pair of PSV Eindhoven’s Philip Cocu falling to a thigh injury, Ajax’s Wesley Sneijder to an ankle strain and Barcelona defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst limp off with a similar injury against the hard-tackling Australian’s.

Even though his team suffered the injuries, van Basten said to a news conference: "I don't regret the match because it is good to play physical football.

"Generally we played well and created a lot of chances, but a match like this gets difficult when you fail to convert them."

Manchester United’s unsettled striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who made an excellent appearance, opened the scoring for the Netherlands after nine minutes, before Everton’s star midfielder Tim Cahill equalised for the Socceroos in the second half.

Australia’s no-nonsense approach made life very difficult for the Oranje, and eventually their bad-tackling had Bristol City midfielder Luke Wilkshire sent off for a second yellow card in the 61st-minute challenge on van Bronckhorst.

Van Basten is confident that the players will all be able to recover in time for the opening match against Serbia and Montenegro, with all of them expected to be fit in time for the latter stages of the group round.

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