Qatar 2022: Five Injured Stars That May Miss Out Of FIFA World Cup

The world is getting set for the first World Cup to be hosted in a Middle Eastern country.

Qatar will be the first Middle East country to host the FIFA World Cup.

The tournament will begin on Sunday, 20 November with Finals scheduled for December 18.

It will be played across eight stadiums including: the Stadium 974; Al Thumama Stadium; Khalifa International Stadium; Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium and Al Bayt Stadium.

Other venues are Lusail Stadium; Al Janoub Stadium and Education City Stadium.

Big names like Lionel Messi have hinted that the Qatar edition will be his last, while longtime rival, Cristiano Ronaldo had said he is still open for more of the tournament.

Both players are hoping to lift their first World Cup title as age is no longer on their side.

But some important faces will also be missed at the tournament due to injuries.

THE WHISTLER has compiled a profile of the big names that will likely miss the competition.

Ngolo Kante

France and Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante was ruled out of the World Cup following an operation on a hamstring injury.

On August 14, the 31-year-old Kante, suffered the injury during Chelsea’s 2-2 home draw with Tottenham.

Kante is expected to be out for four months.

He was part of the team that won the 2018 World Cup for France.

Paul Pogba

Pogba, France international injured the meniscus of his right knee in July. The French man spent nearly two months trying to bounce back.

Pogba is set to miss between six to eight weeks, after he agreed with his club, Juventus in September to go for surgery.

He won the 2018 edition of the competition where they beat Croatia 4-2 in the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia.

Georginio Wijnaldum

Georginio Wijnaldum, 31, broke his leg during training in August. He will be out for 132 days.

The Roma and Netherlands midfielder joined from Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain the summer of 2022.

“I think he will be our big January reinforcement,” Tiago Pinto Roma coach said.

Reece James

England will play Iran, USA and Wales in Group B, but they will likely miss Reece James.

The 22-year-old English man sustained injury during Chelsea’s 2-0 win at AC Milan in the Champions League.

Chelsea boss Graham Potter announced, “In terms of his involvement at the World Cup, I don’t know. It’ll depend on how he recovers.

“But he’s in a brace for probably four weeks. So that slows everything down, I think.”

Diogo Jota

Portugal’s Diogo Jota sustained injury in the Premier League game between his team, Liverpool and Manchester City.

He was taken off on a stretcher in the closing stages of Liverpool’s 1-0 victory.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp announced on October 19 that the Portuguese will miss the competition.

Klopp said, “He will miss the World Cup. (It’s a) pretty serious injury in the calf muscle and now the recovery process starts. We can say that because he will not be in for a long time; we talk about months.

“I don’t want to put now a number on it because I always hope in the middle of the rehab there is a very positive development and we can cut days off the rehab phase, but it will be long.”