Baggio: Is it over? (GraziaNeri/Allsport)

The 34-year-old Brescia player was pushing for a place in the Italian squad for the World Cup finals but now has almost no chance of being fit in time for the tournament which kicks off on May 31.

Baggio, capped 55 times by Italy, had previously said that he intended to retire after the World Cup and on a Monday night television show his agent Vittorio Petrone said the player was now ready to quit the game.

'We were hoping for a different outcome right from the beginning of the medical tests but now Roberto wants to quit football. He wants to change his lifestyle,' Petrone said.

'We will try to change his mind. Personally, I have one more dream - to see him return to the football field.

'Even if he has missed his chance with the World Cup, he deserves to return to playing.'

But Petrone later played down the suggestion that Baggio aimed to retire and told Italian newspapers he had been misunderstood.

Brescia team manager Edoardo Piovani told Reuters that Baggio had not yet taken a decision on his future.

'No decision has been made. It is far too early. He only had the operation on Monday, we all need to have patience,' said Piovani.

Baggio was stretchered off with an injured left knee after coming on as a substitute during Brescia's Italian Cup semifinal match at Parma on Thursday.

It was only his second game back after three months out with an injury to the same knee.

Baggio played in the last three World Cups, making his mark on the 1990 tournament in Italy with a fine individual strike against Czechoslovakia before leading the Azzurri to third place.