France goalkeeper Sebastien Frey has warned his team they must stifle the threat of Romania striker Adrian Mutu if they are to collect an opening-match victory at Euro 2008 in Zurich on Monday.

Frey plays his club football at Fiorentina alongside Mutu, where the Romania striker struck 23 goals last season to help the Italian club clinch a Champions League place.

And while Frey is likely to watch Monday's game from the substitutes' bench as the understudy to first choice shot-stopper Gregory Coupet, his knowledge of Mutu's talent could prove invaluable to France's hopes of kick-starting their Group C campaign with a win.

"Mutu has so much talent, he'll definitely make an impact," Frey said.

"He told me he wants to leave his mark on the tournament so I'm sure he'll be very motivated. He's very versatile and is always a threat on free-kicks but I'll have a word with Greg tomorrow to offer some pointers from what I know.

"If we stifle Mutu, we'll go a long way to stopping Romania."

France head into the game with injury concerns over three of their key players with Thierry Henry and Franck Ribery both doubtful starters while Patrick Vieria has been ruled out with a thigh strain.

Henry and Ribery both suffered injuries during the team's final warm-up match against Colombia last week.

And while they have since been restricted to a lightened training regime coach Raymond Domenech remains hopeful they will take their place in the starting line-up at Letzigrund.

"They picked up a couple of knocks against Colombia. We wanted to go easy with them and avoid worsening the injury," he said following a training session on Saturday.

"They don't need a thousand training sessions."

Vieira's presence in the tournament is under threat due to his injury with AC Milan midfielder Mattieu Flamini called up to the squad to replace him should he fail to recover from the complaint.

Domenech has left the decision as to whether Vieira will be fit to play in the tournament in the hands of the 31-year-old, with an announcement expected to be made later on Sunday.

"It seems logical to me that it's him (Vieira) who tells us if he is ready or not," Domenech said.