The Brazil World Cup is on the way, football stars are still getting knackered, and bizarre injuries have taken place.
Even before the samba soccer party got underway in June, a number of big names — Franck Ribery (France), Marco Reus (Germany), Radamel Falcao (Colombia), Theo Walcott (England), and Kevin Strootman (Netherlands), to name just but a few — were already ruled out of the competition.
Some stars managed to sneak into their side’s final 23-man squads even though they were injured just before the start of the tournament, such as Luis Suarez (Uruguay) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (England), because their coaches decided to take a gamble on them recovering in time for the later matches in the World Cup.
There have been some rather bizarre injury-related events as well.
A Ghanian witch doctor allegedly performed some hoodoo to jinx Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo from playing against Ghana in Group G. Ronaldo did suffer tendonitis in his left knee, although he seems to have recovered enough to feature for Portugal in their opening match against Germany. As Portugal are still two matches away from facing Ghana, the efficacy of the witch doctor’s jinx remains to be seen.
And in a most baffling turn of events, England’s team physiotherapist Gary Lewin somehow managed to dislocated his ankle while celebrating Daniel Sturridge’s goal against Italy.
Currently, Cameroon have talismanic striker Samuel Eto'o out via a knee injury, and Uruguay’s captain Diego Lugano is also out.
The Netherland’s Bruno Martins Indi got injured in the match against Australia.
According to journalist Ewan MacKenna and ESPN reporter Roger Bennett there have been unconfirmed news that Cristiano Ronaldo is out of the World Cup.
Rumours - unconfirmed may I add - here in press centres in Brazil that Cristiano Ronaldo is out of the World Cup.
— Ewan MacKenna (@EwanMacKenna) June 18, 2014
Eye on this US fans @EwanMacKenna Rumours - unconfirmed I add - here in press centres in Brazil Cristiano Ronaldo is out of the World Cup
— roger bennett (@rogbennett) June 18, 2014
Check out the injured stars below.
Injured, Still in World Cup
Diego Lugano (Knee injury)
(DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images)
Hulk (Brazil, muscle injury left leg)
(Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, knee injury)
(Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
Jozy Altidore (USA, left hamstring)
(Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Luis Suarez (Uruguay, key hole surgery, left knee)
(DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (England, strained medial ligament, right knee)
(BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)
Next page: Footballers that have missed that World Cup
Missed World Cup
Franck Ribery (France, back injury)
(Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Kevin Strootman (Netherlands, knee injury)
(FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images)
Radamel Falcao (Colombia, damaged knee ligaments)
(Gabriel Rossi/Getty Images)
Marco Reus (Germany, tore ankle ligaments)
(Simon Hofmann/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Theo Walcott (England, ACL knee)
(Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Christian Benteke (Belgium, serious achilles tendon injury)
(PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images)
Ilkay Gundogan (Germany, chronic back injury)
(JOERG SARBACH/AFP/Getty Images)
Victor Valdes (Spain, knee surgery)
(LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images)
Roman Shirokov (Russia, back injury)
(ALEXANDER FEDOROV/AFP/Getty Images)
Bryan Oviedo (Costa Rica, leg break, double fracture)
(Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Clement Grenier (France, groin)
(Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
Giuseppe Rossi (Italy, ACL tear)
(GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images)
Steve Mandanda (France, neck)
(SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)
Sven Bender (Germany, thigh)
(Sascha Steinbach/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Lars Bender (Germany, thigh)
(PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Kyle Walker (England, pelvic problem)
(Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Mario Gomez (Germany, recovering from right knee injury)
(VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)
Riccardo Montolivo (Italy, fractured tibia)
(Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
Marcel Schmelzer (Germany, groin)
(Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Rafael van der Vaart (Netherlands, calf)
(Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Thiago Alcantara (Spain, knee ligament injury)
(JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)
Friends Read Free