England and the Premier League take another knock.
So with just six days to go until the World Cup explodes into life in South Africa, England finds itself in the midst of a déjà vu curse. Rio Ferdinand's knee ligaments ruling him out of what would have been his fourth World Cup, and most likely his last. Meanwhile England must march on with their third captain of 2010, Steven Gerrard.
Capello must be bemoaning the poor judgements and bad luck that has now robbed him of John Terry and then Ferdinand as the players to lead England in their World Cup quest. Reports had suggested that Ferdinand was close to being back to somewhere near his consistent best, after an injury-ravaged season at Old Trafford.
Unfortunately, with England in the closing moments of their first training session in South Africa, an innocuous challenge from Emile Heskey inflicted the damage to Ferdinand's knee ligaments and that was that. Whilst the loss of the Manchester United defender and England captain is clearly a body blow, there is no reason why England cannot get over their loss and get their tilt back on track.
Looking at the cup being half-full, at least England's preparations have gone astray with time in hand rather than during the tournament itself. Any injury that rules out a player within 24 hours or less of a country's first match, would result in the loss of that player without the possibility of a replacement being drafted in to the squad.
With just under a week until the World Cup starts, Matthew Dawson has already touched down in South Africa after taking an overnight flight to Johannesburg. He has already been fully re-integrated into the England squad and taken part in training at their base in Rustenburg. The Tottenham defender has yet to win a cap for England and whilst he has had a tremendous season, there will be some concern over his lack of a single touch in international football.
This is where Capello has come in for some criticism from fellow managers. Dawson's club manager Harry Redknapp was quite right when he was quoted as saying that both Dawson and West Ham's Scott Parker should have at least been given a run out during England's recent friendlies with Mexico and Japan.
The logic in Redknapp's sentiment is clear. If Dawson and Parker were good enough for the 30 man World Cup squad surely they should have been given a chance to impress, thus helping Capello understand what strength in depth he has. Instead both players could have justifiably felt that they had just been going along for the ride. That lack of reasoning has now been somewhat shown up by the emergency recall of Dawson.
Despite this, Dawson is very accomplished and we can only assume that Capello is perfectly confident in his ability to represent England, otherwise why include him in the first place. Besides, the Tottenham defender is far from the first international to be thrown in at the deep end.
Michael Owen made his England debut a mere four months before the 1998 World Cup, and we all remember the impact he had on that tournament. Then in 2002, Danny Murphy was a late withdrawal for England, Sven-Goran Eriksson drafted in Trevor Sinclair who went on to be one of England's better performers throughout the tournament. All this goes to show that when plans change they can still bear fruit, and Capello will be keenly aware of the importance in re-focusing the squad behind the new captain and vice-captain (Gerrard and Lampard).
The sad injury to Rio Ferdinand is likely to bring to the fore once again, concerns over the intense schedule that the Premier League demands of it's players. The last two days has seen confirmation that John Mikel Obi will also definitely miss the World Cup whilst he recovers from knee surgery. This was preceded on Friday by a fracture to Didier Drogba's elbow, during the Ivory Coast's friendly win over Japan.
Admittedly Drogba's misfortune was described as a case of bad luck and he may still feature in South Africa, but it is yet another case of a Premier League star succumbing to wear and tear after a long campaign. Before these recent injuries there had been previous misfortune to strike other Chelsea World Cup stars. Michael Essien has failed to recover since an injury in the African Nations, and Micheal Ballack was denied a final World Cup appearance by Kevin Prince-Boetang's crude challenge in the FA Cup final. (It remains to be seen if Prince-Boetang will face retribution if he turns out for Ghana against Germany in Group D!)
When looking back at England's participation in previous World Cups, there has been a worrying trend of the nation's build-up being distracted by injuries to high profile players. Just looking at the 2002 and 2006 tournaments you could rattle off the names of Beckham (twice), Danny Murphy, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen. If England does want to avoid these calamities the FA could do worse than seriously considering making the Premier League smaller, perhaps 18 teams like the Bundesliga or Eredivisie.
The Premier League may actually be the same size as La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, but the English clubs do have to contend with a whole other domestic cup competition. Regardless of how many squad rotations may take place, the fact is that more games mean more stress on a player's body and more risk of injury.
Of course if England can overcome the adversity of losing Ferdinand, they can finally render this argument as useless. They certainly have a squad that is capable, and aside from Gerrard a couple of would be captains in the fold, namely Terry and Rooney. Mostly though it should be hoped that no more outstanding players will breakdown between now and the World Cup kick-off next Friday, that way whoever emerges victorious will have had to beat the very best along the way.
Capello must be bemoaning the poor judgements and bad luck that has now robbed him of John Terry and then Ferdinand as the players to lead England in their World Cup quest. Reports had suggested that Ferdinand was close to being back to somewhere near his consistent best, after an injury-ravaged season at Old Trafford.
Unfortunately, with England in the closing moments of their first training session in South Africa, an innocuous challenge from Emile Heskey inflicted the damage to Ferdinand's knee ligaments and that was that. Whilst the loss of the Manchester United defender and England captain is clearly a body blow, there is no reason why England cannot get over their loss and get their tilt back on track.
Looking at the cup being half-full, at least England's preparations have gone astray with time in hand rather than during the tournament itself. Any injury that rules out a player within 24 hours or less of a country's first match, would result in the loss of that player without the possibility of a replacement being drafted in to the squad.
With just under a week until the World Cup starts, Matthew Dawson has already touched down in South Africa after taking an overnight flight to Johannesburg. He has already been fully re-integrated into the England squad and taken part in training at their base in Rustenburg. The Tottenham defender has yet to win a cap for England and whilst he has had a tremendous season, there will be some concern over his lack of a single touch in international football.
This is where Capello has come in for some criticism from fellow managers. Dawson's club manager Harry Redknapp was quite right when he was quoted as saying that both Dawson and West Ham's Scott Parker should have at least been given a run out during England's recent friendlies with Mexico and Japan.
The logic in Redknapp's sentiment is clear. If Dawson and Parker were good enough for the 30 man World Cup squad surely they should have been given a chance to impress, thus helping Capello understand what strength in depth he has. Instead both players could have justifiably felt that they had just been going along for the ride. That lack of reasoning has now been somewhat shown up by the emergency recall of Dawson.
Despite this, Dawson is very accomplished and we can only assume that Capello is perfectly confident in his ability to represent England, otherwise why include him in the first place. Besides, the Tottenham defender is far from the first international to be thrown in at the deep end.
Michael Owen made his England debut a mere four months before the 1998 World Cup, and we all remember the impact he had on that tournament. Then in 2002, Danny Murphy was a late withdrawal for England, Sven-Goran Eriksson drafted in Trevor Sinclair who went on to be one of England's better performers throughout the tournament. All this goes to show that when plans change they can still bear fruit, and Capello will be keenly aware of the importance in re-focusing the squad behind the new captain and vice-captain (Gerrard and Lampard).
The sad injury to Rio Ferdinand is likely to bring to the fore once again, concerns over the intense schedule that the Premier League demands of it's players. The last two days has seen confirmation that John Mikel Obi will also definitely miss the World Cup whilst he recovers from knee surgery. This was preceded on Friday by a fracture to Didier Drogba's elbow, during the Ivory Coast's friendly win over Japan.
Admittedly Drogba's misfortune was described as a case of bad luck and he may still feature in South Africa, but it is yet another case of a Premier League star succumbing to wear and tear after a long campaign. Before these recent injuries there had been previous misfortune to strike other Chelsea World Cup stars. Michael Essien has failed to recover since an injury in the African Nations, and Micheal Ballack was denied a final World Cup appearance by Kevin Prince-Boetang's crude challenge in the FA Cup final. (It remains to be seen if Prince-Boetang will face retribution if he turns out for Ghana against Germany in Group D!)
When looking back at England's participation in previous World Cups, there has been a worrying trend of the nation's build-up being distracted by injuries to high profile players. Just looking at the 2002 and 2006 tournaments you could rattle off the names of Beckham (twice), Danny Murphy, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen. If England does want to avoid these calamities the FA could do worse than seriously considering making the Premier League smaller, perhaps 18 teams like the Bundesliga or Eredivisie.
The Premier League may actually be the same size as La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, but the English clubs do have to contend with a whole other domestic cup competition. Regardless of how many squad rotations may take place, the fact is that more games mean more stress on a player's body and more risk of injury.
Of course if England can overcome the adversity of losing Ferdinand, they can finally render this argument as useless. They certainly have a squad that is capable, and aside from Gerrard a couple of would be captains in the fold, namely Terry and Rooney. Mostly though it should be hoped that no more outstanding players will breakdown between now and the World Cup kick-off next Friday, that way whoever emerges victorious will have had to beat the very best along the way.
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