In the second part of this feature we shall be looking into more football gems who shall not be appearing in the upcoming World Cup.

Chelsea’s Petr Cech will also be missing out on the World Cup

A host of great defenders will also be missing, including Serbia boys Neven Subotic and Branislav Ivanovic, both outstanding performers for their respective clubs Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea. Liverpool’s Daniel Agger is another household name which will be missing this summer whilst Bayern Munich’s David Alaba, an excellent and on form Austrian left back, shall also be absent. Chelsea’s Petr Cech, one of the greatest goalkeepers around, will also feel that hollow void whilst watching other nations battle it out in Brazil, joined in another region of the globe by Napoli’s Marek Hamsik, with both players being unable to replicate their club success onto their national end with the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Whilst some truly distinguished players are missing out due to qualification, other players have had their World Cup dreams bulldozed due to injury. Arsenal’s Theo Walcott has just recently been ruled out of the World Cup after damaging the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last week, which was a huge blow to the English national side. The same week saw another devastating injury in another footballing country, where Fiorentina’s Giuseppe Rossi fell victim to reckless fouling, risking the same injury which ruled Walcott out of Brazil. Tests are currently ongoing as to fully predict the extent of the damage which the Italian player received.

As one can see, though a host of top names seem to be missing from this edition, the players which will in fact be entertaining us will more than make up for the absentees. For every Ibrahimovic and Lewandowski, there’s a Ronaldo and Messi, and whilst there won’t be any Hamsik, Cech or Alaba, there still remain Iniesta, Buffon, Lahm and a host of other outstanding talents to keep us truly entertained.