Mexico waiting on Guardado and Salcido fitness

PASADENA (Reuters) -- Mexico coach Jose Manuel de la Torre faces an anxious wait on the fitness of winger Andres Guardado and defender Carlos Salcido ahead of the Gold Cup final against the United States on Saturday.

Salcido has a heel injury that has been troubling him for some time while Guardado picked up a sprained left ankle in Wednesday's semi-final win over Honduras.

Both players trained apart from their team-mates during a behind-closed doors training session on Friday morning.

"We are going to hope that Salcido and Guardado will be fit, they have recovered well but they know that if they aren't 100 percent they won't play," de la Torre told a news conference on Friday.

Should Salcido miss out, the most likely replacement for him at left-back would be Jorge Torres Nilo but the loss of Guardado would be more complicated.

Aldo De Nigris, who scored the first of two goals in extra-time against Honduras, is the most likely replacement but he is a more classic centre-forward and would force a switch of formation.

Guardado has been in outstanding form in the tournament, playing behind Javier Hernandez and floating alongside Giovani Dos Santos in a line-up which has played havoc with opposition defences.

Asked about his fitness Guardado, who plays for Spain's Deportivo Coruna, told reporters that he was fine. "I feel very good".

Defender Rafael Marquez said he was hoping for good news on Guardado's fitness.

"He is a very important player for us but we know we have other players who can do the same job," said Marquez.