South Korea's national coach, Pim Verbeek:
"From what I have heard his knee is not in a good condition for a 26-year-old football player.
"To save his career it's probably better for him to take more time to recover."
However he was on the bench on Friday, although probably ornamental for the Korean crowd:
"I wasn't able to do as much for the team as I would have liked last season because of injuries.
"This time when I'm back from injury I hope to stay fit and play more games.
"I hope the team can be successful again - we won the title but weren't able to win the Champions League and the FA Cup so I'd like to win them. Really, I just want to win as many trophies as possible."