Argentina coach Diego Maradona is set to make at least one change to his winning line-up for their World Cup encounter against South Korea, with veteran midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron being rested as a precaution.

The 35-year-old Veron played 74 minutes of Argentina`s 1-0 victory over Nigeria in their opening match, but he has been struggling with a knock and Maradona does not want to risk the former Manchester United and Chelsea player against South Korea.

Maxi Rodriguez is the man in line to replace Veron for Argentina`s second Group B encounter, with Maradona saying the Liverpool winger will do a "wonderful job".

"It was a difficult decision to leave Sebastian out because he really wants to play and of course nobody wants to miss out on the World Cup, but we have to deal with the problem of risk," said Maradona at today`s press conference.

"We don't want the injury to get worse, we don't want Veron's World Cup to end. I really need him, I need Veron. I explained the reason to him and he understood perfectly well that it was the best for the team.

"If we put Veron in and once again he has a problem with his calf, like the second half against Nigeria, then we would lose him for the whole tournament."

Maradona also heaped praise on Veron for the way he reacted to the news, adding: "To tell you the truth this was once again a lesson in professionalism. He was a man, a leader, the leader of the group, that's what he showed us, so I'm very pleased with the way he responded and reacted.

"We all know that if we lost Veron the team is not going to be the same. Although we may be losing a very important player I think Maxi Rodriguez is going to do a wonderful job.

"We'll just let Veron rest and recover and we hope he can play against Greece, and if not that then another match."

South Korea coach Huh Jung-moo admits he and his players have drawn inspiration from the performance of their northern neighbours against Brazil.

The North Koreans played with great discipline to keep Brazil at bay for 55 minutes, when only an unusual goal from an acute angle by Maicon opened the match up, with Dunga's men eventually prevailing 2-1.

There may be a temptation for Huh to adopt similar safety-first tactics, with a draw a handy result for the Koreans against Argentina when added to the win they secured against Greece in their opening match and with a third game to come against Nigeria.

The atmosphere on the Korean peninsula is tense to say the very least after the sinking of a South Korean warship by what they claim was a North Korean torpedo in March, but Huh felt comfortable in admitting that sporting lessons could be learned.

He said: "I watched the game and even though they lost they were confident and did quite a good job. We talked about that with our players. Looking at it as a game between a stronger team and a weaker team it gives you a lot to think about and we reflected a lot about that and thought about what would have happened if we were in their shoes.

"So we really did reflect a lot, we were inspired in some ways and got some good ideas. We did learn a lot by watching Tuesday's game."

Huh insists his team will not be intimidated as he and his peers were in 1986 when they played against Diego Maradona - then Argentina's star player and now their coach.

"Twenty-four years ago when we first met Argentina to tell you the truth we were very intimidated and we really didn't know them, there was a difference in the levels which was quite wide," he admitted.

"We had a lot to learn, we still do, but we have a lot of experience and we have good players. If you're too intimidated you can't achieve anything."