The biggest example from my three world cups as an England fan was memorably the David Beckham saga of 2002, when we had every witch doctor’s remedy being suggested, and resident crackpot Uri Gellar taking time out from manipulating the appearance of cutlery to send positive messages to Mr Beckham. As we all know, he did indeed make the tournament, setting up Sol Campbell’s header in the opening fixture against Sweden before crushing Argentinian dreams and banishing all memory of his misdemeanours in Saint Etienne at the previous World Cup. Despite these heroics, Goldenballs was a shell of his former self and the image of Becks jumping out of a soft tackle in the build up to Rivaldo’s equaliser for Brazil in the quarter-final that year still leaves a sour taste. Then you remember in Germany in 2006, Beckham was injured to the point of tears in the crucial game with Portugal. Having already lost Rooney to a red card and Michael Owen to injury earlier in the tournament it certainly didn’t exactly help our cause.
That was not the only time England has been hampered by the curse. Remember Bryan Robson and Kevin Keegan? Well I don’t as I wasn’t here, but I’ve definitely read about it somewhere and it was more of the same. Bryan Robson had a bit of a nightmare, being ruled out halfway through the campaign in 1986, missing the infamous Hand of God game, in a year which he was widely regarded as England’s best player. Then four years later at Italia 90, Captain Marvel could only play a limited role as England bowed out in that emotional semi-final with Germany.
Similarly Keegan was to miss out due to injury in 1982. Having not played in 1974 or 1978 due to England’s failure to qualify, Super Kev finally had the chance to lead his country out in the World Cup in 1982 in Spain. Lo and behold, just 21 minutes into the opening game, Keegan was struck down, ending his World Cup experience. He made a miraculous recovery in the final group game with Spain when he came on as a late substitute, just in time to miss a bread and butter header that would have seen England through.
Now it’s another World Cup year and so time for the curse to strike up once again. It seems shedding the armband wasn’t enough to help Becks as he will miss out through an achilles injury (maybe he still wears the armband round the house due to withdrawal? If so, it’s his own fault.) We also had John Terry go on a sexual rampage - ok one woman, that we know of - which resulted in him being stripped of the captaincy just months before he was set to lead his country out on the biggest stage for the first and probably last time. But, rightly or wrongly Capello saw fit to remove the red band from JT's wandering arms.
And now Rio Ferdinand. In only took one training session but it was enough time for the calamitous Emile Heskey to rule our captain out of the World Cup. Now, I stick up for big Emile every time people put him down and claim he doesn’t deserve his place. I am well aware of the important role he plays in making space for Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard to score our goals. However, I need to make a personal plea to the man. Emile, please, I want to defend you but you keep making it harder for me. He was our captain for god’s sake.
Here’s the controversial part. Could this injury actually be a bit of a blessing in disguise? We all know Rio is a fantastic footballer and has proved at Manchester United that he is a great leader and one of, if not the best defenders of his generation. However, he’s barely played this term and when he has it’s been mediocre at best. There’s also the harsh assessment that if we are going to lose a star in any position then centre back is probably the preferred choice. If we lost Gerrard or Lampard in midfield we would lose a big part of our team and if we lost Rooney… well you might as well tell the boys to hop back on the plane and come home. However in defence Rio has very capable deputies.
Ledley King is held in very high regard and if it weren’t for injury problems I am of the belief he’d be the main man wearing the armband and we’d all be wondering whether it would be Terry or Ferdinand playing alongside him. Past Ledley we’ve got Jamie Carragher who has been at the top forever and after him we have Upson (although I don’t rate him) and then Dawson, who has been the best centre back in England this year. So all is not lost and I think in a months time we could all be revelling in how Ledley King has lead us to the World Cup final.
Another potential revelation in the aftermath of Riogate (Can someone please tell me where all this –gate business came from?) is the selection of Steven Gerrard as captain. The marauding scouser has failed to make an impact in major tournaments so far considering how he single handedly wins major fixtures for Liverpool on a regular basis. I think there’s a good chance that Gerrard will now get that lift to produce the same form for the national side and his appointment could prove the making of the man.
England go into their final warm up match before the tournament starts, where they will play South African Premier League side Platinum Stars. I fancy Hart to start and England to win 3-0. They will be hoping for no more fresh injuries, but the next few weeks could show that the biggest ‘blow’ to the squad so far, could become the making of heros.
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