Police injured in Confederations Cup protests around the Mineirao

Security officers took casualties after being assaulted en masse by mobs numbering in the thousands

Several police officers have suffered injuries as citizen protests during Saturday's Confederations Cup match between Brazil and Italy escalated to violence.

Locals have staged demonstrations against the Brazilian government's funding of the eight-way World Cup dress rehearsal, in addition to the tournament actual in 2014 and the subsequent Olympics in 2016.

The security threat to the host nation's final group game against the Azzurri had been aggravated to a point that officials were forced to deploy military enforcement in and around Mineirao.

Proceedings kicked off in an atmosphere of relative peace nevertheless, as the home supporters initially celebrated their team's goals in the 4-2 demolition of Cesare Prandelli's men to top Group A.

However, reports on local radio of the onrushing of a demonstration numbering 100,000 strong headed for the stadium from Belo Horizonte - the surrounding locale - incited a frenzy.

Around 3,000 protesters directly engaged the police outside the complex. Authorities surrounding the stadium were bombarded by a myriad of objects ranging from rocks to crude bombs.

Five policemen are estimated to have sustained injuries resulting from the assaults, adding to the dozens of civilian casualties and pair of deaths that have been inflicted so far.

Brazil president Dilma Rousseff had appealed for the protesters to disengage in a television broadcast on Friday, citing funding for the World Cup was not drawn from tax income.

Fifa, the competition's organisers, has decided against postponing the remaining fixtures, despite reports claiming a participating nation has requested for such.

No training for injured Musa, Oduamadi

Wingers Ahmed Musa and Nnamdi Oduamadi sat out Nigeria's training session in Fortaleza on Friday.

While the rest of the squad sweated it out on the pitch, the duo stayed on the sidelines with large ice packs on their injured ankles.

Team officials would not say whether or not one or both would be fit on time to feature against Spain on Sunday.

The rest of the squad trained normally under heavy armed guard as authorities seek to pre-empt any attempts by protesters from getting access to the team.

Heavily armed police accompanied the team to training and access was severely restricted, with media credentials checked, then double checked.

The team will hold its official press conference on Saturday afternoon.

Fifa: Confederations Cup will not be cancelled despite protests

The tournament in Brazil has been under threat due to demonstrations spreading across the country, but football's governing body says the show will go on

Fifa says it has no plans to cancel the Confederations Cup taking place in Brazil, despite anti-government protests spreading across the country.

Over one million people took to the streets on Thursday, voicing their anger over the vast extent to which public resources have been spent on the World Cup in 2014 at huge cost to the poor and needy in the country.

However, football's world governing body has insisted that, while it understands the actions of those who have protested, there are no plans to bring an early end to this summer's eight-team competition, nor disrupt next year's World Cup.

"We support and acknowledge the right of free speech and to demonstrate peacefully and condemn any form of violence, [but] at no stage has neither Fifa, the Local Organising Committee nor the Federal Government discussed or considered cancelling the Fifa Confederations Cup or the Fifa World Cup," said a Fifa statement.

"We are in constant contact with all stakeholders, including the teams, and keep them updated on all arrangements made. We have not received any requests to leave Brazil from any team.''

An 18-year-old was killed during the protests after a collision with a car in Sao Paolo on Thursday, while others have been injured.

Latest projections suggest that over €10 billion will be spent on improving stadiums, airports and other projects ahead of next summer's World Cup, with 90 per cent of the cost coming from public funds despite initial promises that money would be provided by private investment.

                                            

The Confederations Cup, used as a test event for the World Cup, began on June 15 and will run until June 30.