The list of stars who will miss the World Cup due to injury is growing by the day. Here’s what it looks like now:
David Beckham, England
Rio Ferdinand, England
Salvador Cabanas*, Paraguay
Jose Boswingas, Portugal
Michael Ballack, Germany
René Adler, Germany
Charlie Davies*, U.S.
Micheal Essien, Ghana
Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast
Carlos Costly, Honduras
*While the other players on the list suffered soccer injuries, Davies was severely injured in an October car wreck, and Cabanas was shot in the head in a Mexico City nightspot in January. Both are healthy and expected to resume their careers.
We further note that Drogba appears, in his drawers, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, on the cover of this month’s Vanity Fair, and Italy striker Giuseppe Rossi, who will miss the World Cup as a last-minute cut from the Azzurri, was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine on May 17 .
We’re not ready to call this a cover jinx yet, but we are saying that Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, all on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated, might want to, oh, we don’t know, light some sage, or call in one of South Africa’s famed witch doctors, before facing Australia tomorrow.
