Paris - Flu, mysterious back pain, sudden migraines and inexplicable attacks of biliousness are being called into play as football fans around the world phone in sick to watch the World Cup.
Internet sites are yielding some smart ideas on the best way to "throw a sickie" so that fans can watch matches in the comfort of their home rather than have to go through the motions of working, with an eye or an ear cued to the nearest TV or radio.
The modern way of skiving is to mug up on symptoms of a disease - the online
The rules are simple.
For a single day off, you need to have a disorder that is quite common, not terribly visible or easily verified by your doubting manager: acute headache, spinal pain, an ear infection and such like.
Female footie fans who say vaguely they are suffering from "women's problems" will probably find their male boss putty in their hands, says a tip on the BBC website.
"Attempts to offer further explanation are invariably rejected by all but the most foolhardy bosses."
The "women's problems" number is "less successful in the hands of even the most determined male employee, although anything to do with the removal of haemorrhoids may have a similar effect," it adds.
For those without much imagination, flu is the usual fallback, but it has its disadvantages.
The symptoms usually do not appear out of the blue, which means you have to put on a comedy show at your workplace for a few days before the match, looking pale and listless and occasionally mopping your brow.
For a longer spell on that comfortable World Cup sofa, amounting to several days or more, you will no doubt need a doctor's note to back your case.
The flamboyant or the merely stupid go for exotic diseases that only occur in distant countries - plague, malarial relapse, haemorrhagic fever, river blindness etc - but others go to extraordinary lengths to present convincing symptoms of run-of-the-mill disorders.
German researcher Alfred Gebert, a psychologist and sociologist based in Muenster, found that of 125 workers he interviewed in May, nearly 20 percent were preparing to "throw a sickie" for the World Cup. A survey on the Germany website
"One told me that his trick is to eat 15 hard-boiled eggs. That gives him terrible stomach cramps, so the doctor gives him a two-week sick note," Gebert said.
"Another guy, a baker, said that he planned not to sleep for three days before going to the doctor, so that he looked terminally exhausted and in need of a couple of weeks' rest."
Several others said that their thing was to drink two litres of Coca-Cola and lots of cups of strong coffee, thus provoking a caffeine overdose that causes shaking hands and a feverish brow and wild, bulgy eyes.
The really desperate could always turn to amnesia.
One tip, posted on Britain's Guardian Unlimited website, was to phone the boss and say this: "I found your number on a card. I rang it in desperation. Can you tell me what my name is, where I live, and what my job is? I woke up this morning to find the last 10 years are a complete blank..." - Sapa-AFP