The 28-year-old Manchester City striker's season has been decimated by the knee problems which caused him to undergo surgery last summer, and he was only able to play a bit-part in his club's unsuccessful attempt to fight their way into the Barclays Premier League's top four.

That has left him short of game time with less than three weeks to go before Paraguay's campaign gets under way against reigning champions Italy in Cape Town on June 14.

Santa Cruz got 77 minutes under his belt in last night's 2-1 friendly defeat by the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, and is confident he will be in top form by the time he gets to South Africa.

He said: "It's one of the reasons those games are made for, to see if players who haven't played that much this season can find a bit of rhythm here.

"I feel really good in terms of the knee and I am very pleased and happy that it let me play and train regularly.

"I am very confident I can get into a good rhythm."

Santa Cruz lined up as one of three strikers in coach Gerardo Martino's adventurous 3-4-3 formation at the RDS with debutant Lucas Barrios in the middle of the trio, and the former Blackburn frontman admits that role is one to which he is still adapting.

He said: "It's hard when you are not playing in that position in your team - I am the main striker when I play at City, so it is something you need to get used to.

"It takes a lot more power to get back to the defence and then get back to the attacking line.

"But I felt very good, and also against North Korea the last time, I felt very good.

"We have two more games now before the World Cup starts, and I think those games are going to help me get into the best rhythm possible."

Paraguay chose Ireland as warm-up opponents as they prepare for clashes with European sides Italy and Slovakia in Group F, with New Zealand their remaining opponents during the opening phase of the finals.

Martino later admitted they could not afford to make the kind of mistakes they did in Dublin - Santa Cruz headed against his own crossbar to hand Kevin Doyle the chance to put the home side ahead with just seven minutes gone and Liam Lawrence doubled his side's tally before the break - if they are to prosper at the finals.

The striker said: "We knew it was going to be a good exercise for us. We need to play against teams who are like Italy and Slovakia, teams that are European and have games similar to what we expect to find there.

"We were a bit unlucky with the goals, the first one especially, and then we managed to play the game and to be dangerous, so it was good."

Paraguay will complete their preparations with games against Ivory Coast and Greece.