2010 FIFA World Cup: Dreams Shattered Due To Costly Injuries, Coaches' Decision

Nigeria's Jon Obi Mikel, Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba, and England's Rio Ferdinand are the latest of many injured players who won't be able to play in the World Cup.

Be it because of injuries or because of the coach's decision, some world class players will have to see the tournament on their TV.

While Michael Essien will be greatly missed by Ghana, who lost the Chelsea star to injury, Lassana Diarra will also be missed by France, but it's a less important loss.

Other national teams who lost players include: Honduras, who lost Costly; Switzerland who lost Spycher; Serbia, who lost Jankovic; Slovakia who lost Karhan; USA, who lost Davies; or Chile who lost Suazo (just for the first two games though).

But the country with the worst luck of all would be Germany, who not only lost captain Michael Ballack (image), but also goalkeeper Rene Adler and young stars Westermann and Traesch, to injury.

EPL winner Chelsea has the most injured players, since Drogba, Essien, Ballack, Obi Mikel and Bosingwa (who sustained a long term injury earlier in the year), won't be seen in the World Cup, as they're all injured in some way.

Other players won't be in because of the coach's decision, including Pato and Ronaldinho (Brazil), Benny McCarthy (South Africa), Nasri and Benzema (France), Cambiasso and Zanetti (Argentina) or Rossi (Italy).

And the list could go on if players like Van Persie, Torres, Gallas, or Cesc weren't able to overcome their respective injuries, like Bosingwa couldn't, or if something like what happened to Uche (Nigeria), who was able to overcome his injury, but his manager wasn't sold on it, so he left him out of the 23.

So let's hope Pirlo can overcome his injury, and we don't see anybody else going home way too early.