Veteran German defender Lothar Matthaus aggravated a thigh injury yesterday in his country's Euro 2000 warm-up friendly match with Liechtenstein and had to leave the field in the 30th minute.

Matthaus (39), who missed the 3-2 win over the Czech Republic on Saturday because of the injury, hobbled to the sidelines and was replaced by Carsten Ramelow.

He must now be a big doubt for the defending champions' Group A opener with Romania on June 12th. However, a spokesman for the German Football Federation (DFB) said that the move was a "precautionary measure".

Matthaus, a veteran of five World Cups, has a world record tally of 147 caps and has been struggling with the injury since a training camp in Majorca, Spain, 11 days ago.