England's injury woes nothing new

How can one player’s injury — and an injury to the left back at that — spell doom for a World Cup team’s hopes. In England, which has a history of injury woes, that’s just how Ashley Cole‘s broken ankle — suffered in a collision with Landon Donovan in EPL action — is being treated. The possibilitythat the Chelsea defender will be out of the World Cup is being called a “serious blow” to England’s World Cup hopes.

The BBC’s David Ornsteinrecounts England’s long history of injuries before or during major tournaments. The most recent examples are the cracked metatarsal Wayne Rooney suffered atEuro 2004 and the same injury suffered less than two months before the start of the 2006 World Cup.

Then there was Michael Owen, who cracked hisfifth metatarsal on New Year’s Eve 2005, returned for the World Cup but then tore an anterior cruciate knee ligament during England’s 2-2 draw with Sweden at the finals. In 2002, David Beckham broke his foot less than eight weeks prior to the World Cup finals. Newspapers encouraged readers to pray for his recovery. Beckham wore astate-of-the-art surgical boot but was hardly 100 percent in Japan.