World Cup woe: The nine injuries (and one tragedy) that wrecked England's dreams of global glory

By Steve Anglesey in Mirror Football Blog

Published 09:18 31/03/10

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England World Cup hopes in South Africa suddenly have a huge shadow hanging over them.

When Wayne Rooney limped off the pitch at the end of Manchester United's Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich, an anxious nation will have held its collective breath.

Fears for United and England as Rooney limps out of Champions League tie  

We will have to wait to see just how serious the striker's injury is but, coming just a few weeks after David Beckham was ruled out of this summer's showpiece with an Achilles tendon injury, it's another blow for Fabio Capello.

Beckham's World Cup dream ended by torn Achilles tendon

But devastating injuries on the eve of major tournaments is nothing new for the Three Lions, MirrorFootball's Steve Anglesey recalls...

Colin Bell and Euro 1976
At 29, Manchester City's tireless inside-forward had already won the league, FA Cup, League Cup and Cup-Winners' Cup as well as owning 48 England caps. Yet under Don Revie, his best days as an international seemed still in front of him. Bell had scored twice against Czecholslovakia in Revie's first game in charge to open England's European championship campaign, netted as West Germany were beaten in a Wembley friendly and got on the scoresheet - though not many missed out - in the 5-1 Home Internationals romp against Scotland.

Then, within a matter of days in November 1975, it all fell apart. England were beaten 2-1 by the Czechs in the return qualifier and, in a 4-0 League Cup demolition of Manchester United, Martin Buchan's dreadful challenge all but ended Bell's career. "My knee bent backwards, bursting blood vessels down my leg. All the ligaments in my knee were torn," he said. "I was told later that there had been a definite risk of thrombosis, which could have killed me. I never considered it at the time, but I guess they might have had to amputate the leg." England's qualifying campaign fell apart with a draw in Portugal and they lost out to Czecholslovakia, who gallingly went on to win the tournament.

Bryan Robson and the World Cup 1986
Manchester United's combative and confident midfielder had already picked up his 'Captain Marvel' tag by hitting a hat-trick in an 8-0 qualifying win against Turkey as England topped their group.

But Robson entered the tournament carrying a nagging shoulder injury which forced him to wear a harness and, coming down after winning a high ball in the second group game against Morocco, fell heavily on the problematic shoulder. The resulting picture of him being helped off the field in agony by cap-wearing England physio Fred Street is one of the iconic photographs of English sporting failure, and Robson's midfield snap was badly missed as Diego Maradona danced through England in the quarter-finals. Sir Bobby Robson always maintained that sublime second goal would never have been scored had his namesake been on the pitch.

Kevin Beattie and Euro 1980
England's failure to beat Luxembourg by more than two goals all but eliminated then from 1978 World Cup qualification. But arguably the biggest disaster of 12 October 1977 is that it represented the last of Ipswich defender Beattie's nine caps.

Notoriously unlucky - Town's title run-in of 1977 faltered when he badly burned himself in a gardening accident - the man Sir Bobby Robson nicknamed 'The Diamond' succumbed to a persistent knee injury which his career in 1982 at the age of only 28. Liverpool's Phil Thompson got his chance instead and England failed to win a game at the 1980 Euro finals. Said Robson: "Nine caps? He should have had 99. In fact, he should have been the most-capped England player of all time."

Jamie Redknapp and the 1998 World Cup
"It must be some kind of record," says Redknapp of the three occasions on which he was stretchered off while playing for England. His jinx struck first in the famous 2-1 Euro 96 group win against Scotland at Wembley, in which Redknapp came on, changed the game and took part in Paul Gascoigne's 'dentist's chair' celebration before suffering a broken ankle.

Given that Terry Venables' side reached the semi-finals in 1996, it can't be said that Redknapp's absence ruined England's chances. The World Cup two years later is another story. Resisting the clamour for the glamour of David Beckham, Glenn Hoddle planned to build his team around Redknapp, a stylish player more in his image than the precocious Manchester United winger. The Liverpool man finally returned to the England set-up in March 1997 but by May he was gone again, breaking the same ankle against South Africa at Old Trafford and missing an entire season and the World Cup in France. It's doubtful he would have reacted with the fateful petulance shown by Beckham when fouled by Diego Simeone in the knockout round match.

Paul Gascoigne and Euro 1992
How different might everything have gone for Paul Gascoigne, for Graham Taylor and for English football had the dangerously hyped-up Tottenham midfielder not committed the horrendous challenge 1991 FA Cup final challenge on Gary Crosby which saw him rupture the cruciate ligament in his right knee?

Given time at home in England to rehabilitate by new club Lazio, Gazza aggravated  the injury still further in a Newcastle nightclub fall and did not return to international duty until after Taylor's rabble had failed to win a single game in Sweden, scoring only once.

David Beckham and the 2002 World Cup
England's talismanic skipper was on the pitch in Japan - even scoring a hearts-in-mouths penalty in the nerve-wracking group win against Argentina - but in truth his World Cup had ended long before the quarter-final defeat to Brazil. On April 11th, to be precise, when a challenge by Argentine Aldo Duscher in Manchester United's Champions League quarter-final against Deportivo La Coruna broke a bone in his left foot.

The speed of Beckham's recovery from the metatarsal injury became a national obsession, but although he returned in time for the group opener against Sweden, his match fitness and mobility was badly hampered and his decision to protect the foot by jumping out of a challenge in first-half injury time against Brazil led to their equaliser. The injury flaring up again, Beckham ended the match on the sideline in tears as England went out.

Terry Butcher and Euro 1988
The never-say-die nature of the man who would later skipper England in a blood-soaked headband cost Terry Butcher dear in November 1987. Scrambling to knock in a loose ball from a corner as Rangers played Aberdeen, his shin collided with defender Alex McLeish's studs, producing a noise so loud that McLeish believed it was his shinpad cracking. Instead, Butcher had broken his leg.

The injury meant Mark Wright and the young Arsenal defender Tony Adams were now Bobby Robson's first choice centre half partnership for the European championship in West Germany. England returned in disgrace, with calls for Robson to stand down which would not abate until he did so heading into the 1990 World Cup - ironically his finest hour as England manager. For Adams, the consequences were worse. Turned inside out by the genius of Marco van Basten in the second game, he returned to England as "Donkey Adams" and increased the self-destructive behaviour which led to alcoholism and imprisonment before his courageous self-reinvention.

Kevin Keegan, Trevor Brooking and the 1982 World Cup
Ron Greenwood's World Cup 22 for Spain included gifted youngsters Kenny Sansom and Bryan Robson, but the former West Ham manager was convinced only the veteran brains of Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking - a Greenwood old boy whose brilliant goal against Hungary had sealed qualification - would give England a serious chance of victory.

Alas, both were injured heading into the tournament, the 31-year-old Keegan suffering from back problems which forced him to fly to Germany for treatment, while 33-year-old Brooking struggled against persistent ankle problems. In the end, both featured for a combined 51 minutes of what was to prove England's final game. Needing to beat Spain 2-0 to qualify for the semi-finals, Brooking shot straight at the goalkeeper and Keegan flicked a header wide as England went out.

Gordon Banks and the 1970 World Cup
The scapegoats for England's World Cup exit to West Germany in a quarter-final they had led 2-0 with 68 minutes gone included chance-spurning forward Jeff Astle and manager Sir Alf Ramsey, who took off Bobby Charlton to rest him for the semis. Yet the biggest target was Chelsea goalkeeper Peter 'The Cat' Bonetti, called into action late when Gordon Banks went down with Montezuma's Revenge on the morning of the game.

Bonetti was down too late to stop Franz Beckenbauer making it 2-1, then was off his line when Uwe Seeler equalised, He was blameless for Gerd Muller's winner, but Banks would not have made the other two mistakes.

To make matters even worse, local TV was understandably showing the match between Brazil and Peru so Banks could only watch a delayed replay of England's game and was still doing so when the team bus returned to HQ. Thus Banks rushed out to greet his team-mates as heroes before their shattered faces told him the unpalatable truth.

Duncan Edwards, Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor, David Pegg and the 1958 World Cup
Manchester United's tragedy at Munich was also England's, cruelly depriving the team Walter Winterbottom took to Sweden of potential captain Roger Byrne, David Pegg - touted as a future replacement for Tom Finney - and centre-forward Tommy Taylor, who had notched 16 goals in 19 international starts and was Nat Lofthouse's likely successor.

Of course, United and England also lost the prodigious talents of Duncan Edwards, of whom Sir Bobby Charlton says: "Without question he would have played in the 1966 World Cup and been England captain." Without the fallen quartet, England exited the 1958 tournament having drawn all three games.

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