When all 32 teams booked their place in the FIFA World Cup this summer in Brazil, there was a buzz created by the number of star players whose country failed to qualify. The like of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robert Lewandowski, Gareth Bale, David Alaba, Marek Hamsik and Petr Cech were some names the football world would love to see at this historic event.
As the world waits eagerly in anticipation for the showpiece to begin, the stars of the qualified teams have kept falling one by one, day by day and week by week. Injuries have stretched some teams to its core, seriously damaging their hopes of winning the world title while for others casting doubts over reaching the knockout stages. Injuries are very much an unfortunate part of the beautiful game but never in such an important season has so many top players fallen victims to injuries.
With just one week to go before the ball gets rolling in Brazil names such as Radamel Falcao, Franck Ribery, Thiago Alcantara, Riccardo Montolivo, Kevin Strootman, Victor Valdes, Rafael van der Vaart, Theo Walcott, Holger Badstuber, Ilkay Gndogan, Lars and Sven Bender, Marcel Schmeltzer, Alvaro Saborio, Christian Benteke and Luis Montes, all improtant players for their respective countries will miss out due to injury.
Steve Mandanda, Kyle Walker, Bruma, Andros Townsend, Stuart Holden, Niko Kranjcar and Clemente Grenier will also miss out due to injury.
The likes of Philipp Lahm, Arturo Vidal, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Makoto Hasebe, Luis Suares and world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo still have injury concerns and may not be fit enough to feature in Brazil. At any major tournament the hope is always to have every team with their best players but this time around only Brazil, Argentina and a few others can boast a squad the manager really wanted.
The spectacle has already been affected negatively before a ball has been kicked at the ‘Home of Football.’ This adds to the protests by thousands of Brazilian citizens against the government, showing their disapproval for the amount of money being spent to host the event. Throw in the lack of readiness of some stadia and the World Cup 2014 could be one to forget very quickly.
Yashiema Love
Senior Contributor
GiveMeSport Writing Academy
You must be logged in to post a comment Login