A spat of injuries across leagues has hit players ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. While some of these injuries have no set timeline and players and teams are in the dark on recovery time, some injuries have dashed dreams of going to the Qatar event in mid-November.
Portugal is one team that has been heavily impacted by injuries. They’ve lost both their wing options to injuries. First it was Pedro Neto, the Wolves winger who had only recently returned from a long-term knee injury that took place last season. This time it was a strain to ankle ligaments that has ruled him out of the WC.
Portugal’s other winger, Liverpool’s Diogo Jota also went down to a calf injury sustained in a match against Manchester City. Manager Jurgen Klopp later said that the prognosis for the injury was not good.“It will be for a long time. We talked about months, so we will see. He knew it when we carried him off the pitch. At that moment he already knew it was a serious one and it could be pretty impactful for his World Cup dreams,” said Klopp to reporters.
There are doubts for the South American giant’s Brazil and Argentina as well as both might lose out on key players ahead of the tournament. Richarlison was recently out of selection for Tottenham Hotspurs because of a calf injury while Angel Di Maria of Juventus and Paulo Dybala of AS Roma both picked up hamstring injuries and are in a race against time to get fit. England has a right-back situation brewing in their midst ahead of the Qatar World Cup. The three lions are favourites for this edition of the tournament and have chanced upon a group of players who could very well go the distance. But most of their attacking play is generated through the wings and in particular, from the right-back position.
At this moment, all three of their established right-backs are out injured with all three expected to return back at some point before, or during the tournament. Chelsea right-back Reece James sustained an injury during a Champions League match against AC Milan in Italy. He is expected to be out for at least eight weeks with a knee injury. In a team that has Kyle Walker and Trent Alexander Arnold, Reece James is England’s purported first choice for the crucial position.
“In terms of his involvement at the World Cup, I don’t know,” said Potter. It’ll depend on how he recovers. But he’s in a brace for probably four weeks. So that slows everything down, I think.” Walker had picked up a groin injury and went through surgery in the early stages of October while Arnold picked up an ankle injury in a 3-2 loss to Arsenal last week.