Didier Drogba Very Probably Out of World Cup 2010

June 4th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

drogba Bad bad news today people. Cote d’Ivoire captain Didier Drogba fractured his right forearm arm during a 2-0 friendly win over Japan in Switzerland today. Drogba is undergoing tests to see just how bad thing are, but with only 11 days until Cote d’Ivoire’s World Cup opener vs Portugal, things do not look good. The injury was sustained after an aerial challenge with Japan defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka, which didn’t look malicious.

According to Cote d’Ivoire defender Kolo Toure, Drogba thinks his World Cup is over. “For him, he said, the World Cup is finished,” Toure said. “We can just see on his face that he was sad, and when he is like that you can’t ask more,” Toure said. “It is difficult for us because he is such a really important player.”

However… brilliant striker that Didier Drogba is, he’s not a doctor. So this isn’t 100% yet.

Cote d’Ivoire coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is refusing to rule Drogba out, with the Associated Press quoting him thus:

“We are not sure yet,” Eriksson said, saying Drogba’s participation was “still a possibility.”

My guess is that given Drogba’s monumental importance to Cote d’Ivoire, and given Sven’s track record of crossing his fingers when players get injured (remember as England manager he took an injured Wayne Rooney and an injured Michael Owen to the 2006 World Cup, with only Peter Crouch as backup) that Drogba will not be replaced in the squad, and will be given every chance to get fit.

It’s surely a long shot at this point though, and so terrible news for Cote d’Ivoire. But it’s also bad news for the tournament. One of the most exciting things about South Africa hosting the World Cup was the prospect of seeing the superstar African footballers playing close to home. Michael Essien is already out, and now probably Didier Drogba. Will someone please bubble-wrap Samuel Eto’o?

- I don’t normally like posting video of injuries, because inviting readers to watch a man get his body broken seems a cheap and nasty way of getting pageviews. However, the below video of Drogba’s isn’t particularly gruesome, and is of interest, so click play if you want to see how it happened:

[via Daily Telegraph]

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http://malawi.worldcupblog.org sscouser

“You can plan a picnic but you can't predict the weather.” I had Ivory Coast making it Round of 16. Now with Drogba's injury, what I submitted for the WCB Bracket contest is now null and void.
http://england.worldcupblog.org/ Rob

I'm surprised he can't play with his arm bandaged up, he would have in times gone by.

If he is out of the World Cup it is terrible news, for Ivory Coast and for the tournament as a whole. It'd be really bad if no African side makes the Ro16 in the first African WC.
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org sscouser

It may not be time to lose hope yet. Remember Ghana made it to the finals of Africa Cup of Nations Angola 2010 without Essien and Appiah. I still think at least 2 African teams will make it to the Round of Sixteen. Algeria could be one of them. If the Algerians make it to round of sixteen then bad news for either England or U.S.A. No smiley here
TewDollars

Yup, same here.
http://twitter.com/agiamba Aaron Giambattista

Breaking news: “DROGBA HITS THE DECK…WITH REASON”
chupp

Well, we still need Eto'o, Xavi, Rooney, Messi, Ronaldo and a few others to get injured and thw whole tournament can go to hell. It's bad enough already with Beckham, Essien, Ballack and Ferdinand out. We really don't need Drogba to be out too.