Australia has ruled out the prospect of fielding a weakened team in its next World Cup match against Brazil to protect its players from being suspended for its final Group F game with Croatia.

Four players—goalscorers Tim Cahill and John Aloisi and defenders Vince Grella and Craig Moore—collected yellow cards in Monday's opening 3-1 win over Japan in Kaiserslautern.

Those players would automatically miss the Croatian match if they received another yellow card against world champion Brazil in Munich on Sunday.

With the match against Croatia looming as the likely decider to see who goes through to the second round, the Australians could be tempted to bench those four and start with a weakened team.

Assistant coach Graham Arnold said the matter had not been discussed but the Australian players all wanted to play against Brazil.

“We don't have the luxury of being able to rest players,”Arnold said.