With a brand new week of World Cup fixtures kicking off today, Football Express News take a look at which players are not certain to feature in their next instalment of international campaign owing to injury and illness.
Cameroon captain and striker Samuel Eto’o, whose recovery from a knee operation left him out of last week’s 4-0 defeat against Croatia, will likely be unfortunate to further-diminish Cameroon’s chances of survival in the tournament today. Eto’o is sure to be disappointed to skip the clash against Brazil, a fixture tipped to be tough for the Africans.
Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal is also recovering from surgery to his knee and has picked up an injury to his Achilles tendon. World Cup dark horses Chile, who dumped current champions Spain out of the competition last week, are playing the Netherlands this afternoon and a question mark hangs over whether their star player Vidal will be making his appearance.
Last Wednesday, Dutch defender Bruno Martins Indi was concussed during a challenge by Tim Cahill which saw the player stretchered off during the Netherlands’ head-to-head with Australia. Indi spent the night at hospital where his condition was monitored and his fit-to-play status against Chile today is yet to be confirmed.
France defender Rafael Varane skipped training yesterday along with three other members of the French national team, all of whom were suffering a nasty bout of gastroenteritis. If the youngster is recovered by Wednesday he could face Ecuador.
Two other French squad members currently in recuperation are defender Laurent Koscielny, who has struggled with tendonitis, and Mamadou Sakho, who picked up a thigh injury on Friday against Switzerland.
Should all three centre-backs be absent from the upcoming France World Cup fixture, it could pose defensive problems for manager Didier Deschamps.
