By TRAVIS CLARK
With just one week until the start of the World Cup, England's campaign may have suffered a setback as Rio Ferdinand injured his knee in training on Friday.
The extent of the injury is still unknown, but was severe enough to send England's captain to the hospital for a scan. Joining Ferdinand on the sidelines was goalkeeper David James, who sat out a training session with a minor knee injury.
(UPDATE- The Guardian is reporting that Ferdinand will miss the World Cup with ligament damage in his left knee.)
England did get some good news on the injury front with Gareth Barry rejoining the team for training, though he's expected to be unavailable against the USA.
Here's a look at a few other stories for Friday morning:
Drogba hurt in win against Japan
Chelsea and Ivory Coast hit man Didier Drogba came off in the 18th minute of the Elephants' 2-0 win over Japan, but the specific extent of his injury is unknown — some reports claiming Drogba fractured his elbow. The loss of Drogba would be hard for the Ivory Coast to overcome, considering they'll face Brazil and Portugal in the group stage.
(UPDATE- Early reports indicate that Drogba will also miss the World Cup.)
Germany wins friendly over Bosnia-Herzegovina
After going down 1-0 to Edin Dzeko's 15th minute goal, Germany stormed back to score three unanswered goals in a 3-1 friendly win against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday. Bastian Schweinsteiger netted. twice for the Germans from the penalty spot and Philipp Lahm added the third goal. Germany begins its World Cup campaign on June 13 against Australia in Durban.
Torres closes in on Spain return
Spanish striker Fernando Torres is closing in on a return to action just in time. The Liverpool attacker could get a run out in Spain's last friendly against Poland on Tuesday. Torres had surgery back in April to fix a knee injury that put his chances to play in South Africa in jeopardy. Spain plays its first group match on June 16 against Switzerland.
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Think the media is over-hyping England injury concerns? Will Drogba miss the World Cup? How dangerous will Germany be? Can Torres make an impact at the World Cup after his long injury lay off?
Share your thoughts below.
How bad is J Cesar?? Is he starting for Brazil still?
Well, you’re a braver man than me. I’ll just flat out say it–I’ll take a weaker England
lol. Took the words right out of my mouth
Bummed about Ferdinand. He hasn’t moved well all season and I liked our chances against him. I think a healthy Michael Dawson or Ledley King is actually an upgrade for England.
What you say is very true. I would also add that people who only watch the WC because of stars lack perspective to a degree. It’s every 4 yrs and it’s a chance for the world to come together and actually enjoy something that isn’t politics, war, etc. It’s about your country’s flag! Not some club crest that represents budgets, transfers, contracts, and owners. I may take flack from this, but the WC is where stars become legends in history.
I picked them to win the world cup over the Netherlands a few weeks ago.
Cetainly John Terry–I have zero respect for that guy. I could care less if he suits up for England at this point.
Drogba too??? God this really sucks. Do we call this the “Curse of the Write the Future Ad?” Ronaldinho is in the ad and doesn’t even get the call up to Brazil’s initial 30. Drogba is in the ad and he gets injured by some overzealous opponent. Who’s next, Rooney?
In all seriousness though, this sucks for Drogba, who’s basically Ivory’s Coast’s football ambassador to the world.
Never mind, just read Gerrard will wear the armband.
You ” hate over reactors” and yet you’re calling him racist for his post?
Irony much?
“You need to be in a special class or something” ~ Katt Williams, seriously tho, there is something wrong with you
I couldn’t read every single post within this thread, but anyone else wondering if this leads to John Terry wearing the Captain’s armband again?
Tough break (figuratively speaking) for both nations. However, since England fans/journalists believe our group is a cake-walk:
“E(ngland) A(lgeria), S(lovakia) Y(anks)”
…I’ll save my sympathy for the Ivory Coast, since England supporters are within an ” easy ” group, not to mention being world class all over the pitch.
Try beckham in the midfield.
You lost me at Bruce Lee…racist much? Give me a break, a high knee happens in every game. It’s unfortunate but “the most incredibly inappropriate and reckless challenge”? C’mon! Sounds like someone’s got an axe to grind.
I thought it was funny enough to point out the obvious humor inherent in the mention of “Terry” and “vice-captain” in the same item. There are lots of ways to connect the dots, but it didn’t seem like it would add anything to do so. How about “Even though he can’t be captain, Terry seems ideally suited to be vice-captain.”
+1..to be honest i’d probably be a little relieved that he can’t ruin us on the 12th, but I don’t want to wish bad upon one of our boys.
The Guardian is reporting he’s undergoing emergency surgery to try to make it back:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/04/didier-drogba-world-cup-injury
Let’s be real, here. Ivory Coast with Drogba is one of the most talented teams in the world top 10 easily. Of course, they had a chance to do some serious damage in the WC. Drogba made a deep run likely for the Ivory Coast, despite the group, it would not have been suprising to see them in the seminfinals. Once you get to the semis anyhting can happen.
Let’s not forget how impportant it is that the this cup is in Africa. Not only would the Ivory Coast have home field advantage against almost every team they play, but they also wouldn’t have to deal with the number of European or South American fans that would be there if the game was in one of those continents.
Most media outlets are picking Honduras to finsish 2nd in their group. That’s not embarrassing.
whoops. Viera wasn’t injured. Need another defender for a 4-4-2
Current Injury XI?
Drogba-Cabanas
Essien-Trasch-Cambiasso-Viera-Ballack
Westerman-Ferdinand-Zanetti
Julio Cesar(broken rib)
About England. A king, Terry combo is probably better than Ferdinand and Terry
They can replace an injured player up to 24 hours before their first match. The replacement player doesn’t have to be one of the players on the original 30-man roster.
In Ferdinand’s case, they will probably replace him with Dawson.
Correct.
Australia was hacking the shiite out of New Zealand when those two played a week ago. Let’s hope they don’t do likewise tomorrow…
I think England is playing head games. This injury is either over blown or a means to get King on for the game against the U.S.
As for Drogba – that’s terrible news not only for him and his team, but for all who enjoy the sport.
just like Drogba. Go off the field holding your groin and get ruled out of the WC for breaking your elbow.
Drogba, Ballack, Essien… all injured, all play for Chelsea… let’s hope Terry, Lampard and the Coles join them soon 🙂
some people ARE indeed idiots… look up representativeness bias, then look in the mirror… Germany’s last 40 years of performance have nothing to do with this team
it will be the backs of the shirts playing at the World Cup, not the fronts… I’m sure the last 40 years are no consolation to German fans, who are rueing losing Ballack and bringing unfit and out of form strikers to the WC.
Cara is better than both Dawson and King.
Amazing. How is it even possible to to pivot or break hard? The ACL basically keeps the femur from extending forward off the knee.
And what about Carragher? We all seem to be forgetting about him?
You’re one of those idiots who thinks Slovenia is a better side than the USA and Algeria simply because they’re in Europe, aren’t you?
I expected Ivory Coast to absolutely run a riot on Portugal, and I still expect them to win that game.
“Yaya better than Every Midfielder we have both offensively and defensively…”
Castrol midfielder rankings do not agree with you, but they carry more weight than unsubstantiated opinion.
King was huge last season but played alot at the end for Spurs and may feel the effects. They may be O.K for the US game but there is no way King can play three games in 12 days with that knee which means in the second game they’ll have to play a Terry/? formation which will be a disadvantage. It also means if Terry gets a red which is not out of the question given his temprament they could be in a bad state at CB.
Greece sucks…
Quaker,
There are quite a few players out of the Cup, but not necessarily through injury. I would have loved to watch Pato and Dinho for Brazil and Zanetti and Cambiasso for Argentina. I just want to see the best players every 4 years. Ballack I can do without because Germany is so systematic it doesn’t matter who plays, they just win. I know that a big team is going to stumble and not make it out of the group… but it looks very formulaic this go round.
Brazil – Portugal
England – US
Germany – Ghana
South Africa – France
Holland – Denmark
Argentina – South Korea
Italy – Paraguay
Spain – Chile
I am right there with you on the Top 4 EPL junkies. The EPL is busted and I think the English are now tiring of it as well and want some sort of change.
You seem to be forgetting that Terry will DEFINITELY be one of the starting CBs. So do you pair Terry with King or Dawson?
As a US fan I’m interested in the england game because of the test. I’m not interested in getting a free pass because of injuries. So in that respect I want England’s strongest squad.
Advancing out of the group has less to do with the England game than the other two.
wow i really wanted to see drogba owning it up
The African teams weren’t as heavily favored or as deep the last WC as they are this year. Whether they have seriously improved or the home continent advantage is a real factor, they are just about all good picks to at least make it out of their groups.
Saying they’re too corrupt “to get anywhere” is an ignorant thing to say. Is England corrupt? USA? Have they really ever “got anywhere”? That’s such a foolish thing to say because you have no idea where to draw the line on corruption in football or how deep it runs or how much it would affect a nation competing in a WC in the first place. All I know is their entire country got behind the national team in 2006 and pretty much stopped a civil war. The WC is one of the few things that can do that, so don’t try to undercut a nation before the thing even starts.
As much as the World Cup is about stars, its also about young/unknown (outside of their country/club team) players breaking out and showing the world just how good they are on the biggest stage.
I was watching the game on espn3 when it happened. I think he knew how bad it was immediately, his expression was awful to see.
Are you Jonathan Spector? Sorry, had to ask.
And I agree with your approach to it Jonathan. I was REALLY looking forward to seeing Drogba pull one out for the IC in that group, and Ballack is excellent. Super sad to see them go down the way they did, too. But we can still root for our team, and the Cup will not suck. USA! USA!
It’s certainly entirely possible. You never know – someone like Findley might have some success late in a match against King. But I wouldn’t put anything past King at this point. What he did last season was massive.
Some people are idiots.
Thanks for the more in-depth analysis, I knew they usually performed well in the World Cup historically, just didn’t realize it was THAT good.
I agree for the most part.
But just to be a devil’s advocate…
How will that knee hold up in the later stages of the match? Too much pain when we put on a fresher, faster player?
It might not matter with Rooney and Co. going at our back line, but I can hope, right?
Do you watch football, your insane!!!!
Honduras at best will get 1 pt. and maybe from the swiss.
“This is Honduras’ golden generation and they have plenty of talent to make it out of that group.”
They have NO SHOT at making it out of that group.
quelle dommage, mainly because that makes Portugal and Brazil the odds on favorite to advance out of the group.
Stevie G is now captain…
Imposter!! Hatorade only fuels champions! That’s why ivory coast and honduras will make the final! You heard it here first!