Czech Republic face Ghana in their second World Cup Group E game on Sunday shorn of their two best strikers although they do have the luxury of the experienced Vratislav Lokvenc ready to plug the gap.

Milan Baros is struggling with a mystery foot injury that might rule him out of the whole tournament while Jan Koller is out until at least the second round after tearing a hamstring in the opening 3-0 win over the United States.

That means a start, probably as a lone striker, for 32-year-old Lokvenc, who has been in and around the team for more than 10 years, scoring 14 goals in 73 games and whose physical presence mirrors that of Koller, who he replaced after 45 minutes against the Americans.

Like Koller he is easing back to full fitness after a knee injury that restricted him to a handful of appearances for his Austrian club Salzburg this season but he looked sharp enough against the US and also offers a similar aerial threat.

Czech coach Karel Brueckner says he is unconcerned about the unexpected change of plans but will also be looking for plenty of attacking support from Tomas Rosicky, who scored twice on Monday, Pavel Nedved and Jaroslav Plasil, whose performance he raved about all week.

"We will not have the ideal lineup but there is strength in this squad,," Brueckner said.

The coach will also demand a disciplined performance as Lokvenc, Rosicky, David Rozehnal and Zdenek Grygera are all one yellow card away from being suspended for the final group match against Italy.

If all goes to form, that game will decide who plays Brazil and who faces Australia, Japan or Croatia in the second round.

Ghana, though, are not ruling themselves out just yet despite marking their World Cup debut with a 2-0 loss to Italy.

"Teams that lose the first match can still get to the quarter-finals and go far," said captain Stephen Appiah.

If Ghana are to progress in their first World Cup finals they will have to find much more in attack than they showed in their opener.

The four-times African champions held their own in terms of possession but they barely mustered a worthwhile effort on goal.

Coach Ratomir Dujkovic pointed to the eight goals they scored in three warm-up games against South Korea, Jamaica and Turkey.

That statistic is unlikely to ruffle a Czech defence who have kept four successive clean sheets in competitive matches and boast one of the tournament's top goalkeepers in Petr Cech.

Probable teams:

Czech Republic (4-5-1): 1-Petr Cech; 2-Zdenek Grygera, 6-Marek Jankulovski, 22-David Rozehnal, 21-Tomas Ujfalusi; 4-Tomas Galasek (captain), 11-Pavel Nedved, 8-Karel Poborsky, 10-Tomas Rosicky, 20-Jaroslav Plasil; 12-Vratislav Lokvenc.

Coach: Karel Brueckner

Ghana (4-4-2): 1-Richard Kingston; 15-John Paintsil, 4-Samuel Kuffour, 5-John Mensah, 6-Emmanuel Pappoe; 11-Sulley Muntari, 8-Michael Essien, 10-Stephen Appiah (captain), 18-Eric Addo; 3-Asamoah Gyan; 14-Matthew Amoah.