It all began the day after the English FA Cup final when Germany's talismanic captain Michael Ballack was declared unable to play after a ankle injury he suffered during that final following a challenge from Ghana's Kevin-Prince Boateng, who would have received some abuse from his brother, Jerome Boateng who will be representing Germany in South Africa.
If it wasn't bad enough that one of the world's greatest mid-fielders would miss the finals, two of Ballack's Chelsea team mates will be joining him on the sidelines. Nigeria Captain John Obi Mikel will be absent with a knee injury that left him sidelined for a large proportion of Chelsea's historic double winning season. Ghana's most important player, Michael Essien, will also be missing, as he has been virtually all season, with an ankle injury he picked up during the African Cup Of Nations, an injury which limited Essien to just 14 league appearances last term.
Then we discovered that Argentina's Diego Milito had picked up an injury leaving a serious doubt over his participation, which could be a big blow for coach Diego Maradona who would be without the man who scored a brace in the Champions League final.
Then came the news that Ivory Coast captain Didier Drogba had fractured his elbow during his country's warm up game with China. Having undergone a successful operation, last season's Premier League top scorer is hoping to find a way of playing through the pain with the aid of some sort of protective strapping, which would have to be approved by FIFA.
But following the news that Drogba's participation was in doubt, came the news that all England fans feared. Captain Rio Ferdinand, who was hoping to appear at his fourth World Cup finals, suffered a knee injury after a training ground collision with Emile Heskey thus ruling him out, which resulted in the call up of Michael Dawson, who was unlucky to be omitted from the 23 man squad in the first place.
Holland were 6-1 up against Hungary and cruising before one moment made the whole of the Amsterdam Arena fall silent. Arjen Robben, who is coming into the tournament on the back of arguably the best season of his career thus far, having scored twice after coming on as a second half substitute, fell awkwardly which resulted in a hamstring injury landing the Bayern Munich man in hospital for scans last night. Bert Van Marwijk was clearly upset having said that he would rather have " lost the game than lost Arjen." But Robben isn't the only injury concern that Van Marwijk has, having seen Everton's Johnny Heitinga leave the pitch with an ice pack on his ankle.
Despite all these injury worries the World is waiting in anticipation for the first match of the finals, featuring the hosts South Africa and Mexico on the 11th June at 4:00 pm.
Paul Seed
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