World Cup musings

With the sad news of Rio Ferdinand's enforced absence from the World Cup (following a tackle with Emile Heskey, of all people) I couldn't help but begin to wistfully think of absent friends.

Imagine an England squad with Rio in it, as well as Owen Hargreaves and Michael Owen, not to mention retiree Paul Scholes, then we would really have entered this tournament with real confidence.

As it is, a kind draw still makes the semi finals a distinct possibility but without our captain and a top quality holding midfielder, you would have to imagine a side like Brazil or Spain will knock us out (think back to England's friendlies against these two nations in 2009 when we were comfortably beaten and it paints a pretty bleak picture).

Still, where there is Wayne Rooney, there is hope.

Furthermore, England are not the only nation to be missing players through injury. Our old friends Germany, in particular, will suffer from the absence of Michael Ballack, Christian Traesch and number one goalkeeper Rene Adler.

Italy have severe doubts surrounding the influential midfielder Andrea Pirlo and then there is the Spanish. There must be severe doubts surrounding the durability of Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Andreas Iniseta after being out injured for significant parts of 2010.

Nevertheless, the 'golden generation' for England who gave us so much hope prior to the 2006 tournament still have one more shot at glory, albeit it minus David Beckham. For Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and possibly John Terry, this has to be their last chance at World Cup glory. If that is not enough motivation, then nothing will be.