Nuwan Peiris
Sometime between June 11th and July 11th, 736 players are going to leave South Africa empty handed. Some may exceed expectations, but only 23 will leave with the ultimate prize, the World Cup Trophy.
However some players are making the trophiless trip home prematurely, with a spate of injuries hitting potential World Cup suitors. The list of players in serious doubt to even make an appearance at this summer's tournament (winter for the hosts) isn't a list of lesser known players who we feel sorry for, for missing this opportunity of opportunities. Rather it's dominated by big names. A captain, a premier striker, a flying winger, a midfield rock, and a superstar of last World Cup. These are just the highlights, or rather lowlights, of a growing injury list leading to the June 11th kick-off of the World Cup.
Rio Ferdinand (England), Didier Drogba (Cote d'Ivoire), Arjen Robben (Holland), Michael Essien (Ghana), Andrea Pirlo (Italy). These are players either totally ruled out, if not highly unlikely to turn out at all for the tournament. Furthermore injuries for Brazil's goalkeeper Julio Cesar and Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel, have them as doubts for the opening fixtures. Throw in a couple more defenders and a striker, and you have a high profile starting XI of injured players who could miss the World Cup.
It once again throws into question the amount of football that is played today. Take Bayern Munich, who won a close race to the Bundesliga title, leaving them little room to rest key players (Robben) late in the season. In addition they went the distance in the DFB Pokal (German knockout cup) and went to the Champions League final too. That's over 50 games this season. Ironically Robben avoided burnout from Bayern's extended season because he was in the stands injured for much of it, missing nearly half of Munich's games.
Some even question the need for some of these superstars to play significant time in friendlies and warm up games for the World Cup. Obviously getting accustomed to the climate in South Africa, as well as to playing with international teammates again is important, but teams like Cote d'Ivoire in particular will rue the loss of their injured stars.
One can't help but feel for the aforementioned players. It's one thing to not qualify for the tournament or to be "Thierry Henry'd" out of the tournament, but to fall at the last hurdle, being injured in training not a week from the tournament kick-off is well and truly gutting.
The various injuries certainly impact each team to different degrees.
Drogba is one of the best strikers in the World and while Cote d'Ivoire still have talent in Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure and Aruna Dindane to name a few, their World Cup hopes very much rested on the shoulders (and intact arm) of Drogba.
The same can be said for Ghana, who are now missing half of the midfield duo that gives the Black Stars their drive. Michael Essien is a quality player on both sides of the ball (...sorry, I need to pause, it pained me to say that), and one that a team short on quality, like Ghana, could ill-afford to lose.
Where these African teams see their chances of World Cup success fade away, other teams can still rely on their quality-ridden squads to pull them through.
Italy may miss one of their stars of the last World Cup. Andrea Pirlo was man of the match 3 times in the 2006 tournament, including the semi final and final. His magic in midfield contributed to crucial goals (of which Italy didn't score many at all), including Marco Materazzi's header in the final. However Italy's squad is once again stacked with experienced players, and Pirlo's loss, while important, will not be a deathblow to the Azzurri.
Robben is in top form at the moment and football fans worldwide will sadly miss his blistering pace and play down the wing. However his loss to a star-studded Dutch team is far less than some of the other names on that list. If anything coach Bert van Marwijk's job has been made a little easier. Prior to Robben's injury there was a lot of demand for "the fab four" (Robin van Persie, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben) to all feature in the starting XI. This fearsome orange foursome would certainly terrorise their opponents, but the obvious risk was being caught short handed defensively. However with Robben out, van Persie, van der Vaart and Sneijder can all start, with the more than capable Dirk Kuyt taking a starting place on the field.
Rio Ferdinand's loss to England is somewhere inbetween the case of Robben and the case of Drogba / Essien, in significance to the team.
England's squad is up there with the best of them, and are probably top five favourites to win the Cup. However there may be one place where England cannot afford to lose a starter, and the central defense is it. Ferdinand has missed much of this year with Manchester United with back troubles, and has hardly lived up to his stalwart defense of the previous season. However with Ferdinand out now, England's formidable central partnership has more questions asked about it. Ferdinand gave the central pairing some height, and ability to defend set pieces. John Terry has shown himself to be a little more susceptible to aerial attacks recently. Not only that, but Ferdinand's back-up, Ledley King is as unable to retain his fitness as West Bromwich Albion are a spot in the Premier League. King would be an ideal replacement, a strong and powerful defender, but will most certainly only be able to play significant minutes in every other game. This is as a result of the same knee injuries that have prevented him from reaching his full potential.
England should be just fine without Ferdinand in the end, they have too strong a squad. Ferdinand doesn't quite compare to Beckham and Rooney in their primes, but he joins them on an ever growing list of England stars that fall prey to injury come tournament time.
Sadly the World Cup has lost some of its biggest stars before the tournament has even begun, and expect to see at least one or two more fall as the games progress. Although let's look at a positive from this unfortunate situation. Teams such as Portugal, North Korea (ok, this one is a stretch), Australia and Serbia see their chances of progressing from the group stage increase at the expense of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana (although I still have both African sides progressing from their groups). Not only that, but a player who was cut from the initial 30 man squad of these teams, now has a chance to make an impact on football's biggest stage. Injuries to stars on some of the bigger teams may even make for a more interesting tournament, with more upsets.
All we can hope for now is a quiet, uneventful and injury-free next 5 days and 17 hours!
