I was shocked to hear that one of the best strikers in the world, Didier Drogba, will be out the World Cup after breaking his right arm yesterday in a practice match against Japan. And then later yesterday England captain Rio Ferdinand hurt his knee in training and he is not out of the World Cup.

Amazing!

That is four captains who are now out . . Ivory Coast's Drogba, England Ferdinand, Germany's Ballack and Ghana's Essien.

Drogba however, is probably more important to his team than is any other single player to their respective teams. All countries have to deal with injuries but Drogba's absence will really hurt the Ivory Coast who are in the toughest group as it is with Brazil and Portugal.

It is a shame because you always want to see the best players on the field at the World Cup and Drogba has been on fire this year leading Chelsea to the Premier League title and FA Cup.

I know the Ivory Coast's manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, is holding on to the slim hope that Drogba will be OK but I doubt he will be. But injuries are a part of sport and so the Ivory Coast players are going to have to step up and be counted.

Let's hope other players at the World Cup stay healthy for the next week. We don't want these star dropping like flies before the tournament starts.

One thing that Ballack, Drogba and Ferdinand all have in common though ¿ they are getting on in age.

Next Friday the eyes of the world will be on the opning game at Soccer City which sees hosts South Africa take on Mexico in Group A.

Everyone wants the hosts to do well but South Africa may find it tough to push out of their group ¿ they are going to really need that 12th man. The other two teams are France and Uruguay so the chances of South Africa getting into the knockout stages are not good. France, Uruguay and Mexico are all fairly strong teams.

In Group B the strongest side is Argentina and I have to believe that they will move on. But there is also Greece, Nigeria and South Korea. Don't count out the Greeks ¿ people did that at Euro 2004 and look what happened. They play as a unit and could be tough although I think Nigeria will also be hard to get by. They are a team of very good athletes and they are physically big and strong. If they can put it about they could join Argentina in the next stage.

Group C has England and I hope they move on. The US have proved they can play but don't count out Slovenia ¿ they managed to beat Russia to make the World Cup and while most people do not know that much about Algeria, they beat Egypt to get to South Africa ¿ and Egypt are a pretty good team.

In group D Germany will be dangerous but they are missing some players ¿ especially Ballack. But Germany are always mentally tough and they all play for each other so you can never count them out ¿ ever!

Ghana will really miss leader Essien but they do have other dangerous players. They are physical and they must make the other team feel like they have been in a war.

Australia are not an unknown quantity anymore ¿ they do not necessarily have the most skilful players but they all get stuck in and can make life difficult.

Serbia could be tough. They are from the old Yugoslavia and I have always said that Yugoslavia were the Brazil of Europe. They can play excellent football.

Holland look to be the class Group E and I hope they keep playing well. They are such a joy to watch and are so dangerous.

Cameroon have Eto'o ¿ one the best strikers in the world ¿ but they will need more than him. However they, like the other African teams, will have the crowd on their side. Denmark are always a pretty tough team ¿ they play well together and will not be easy to get by and Japan looked pretty good against England the other day ¿ despite the own goals.

Italy are the cream of Group F ¿ the easiest group I believe.

I think we can discount New Zealand ¿ and it will be Paraguay and Slovakia who will fight it out to advance.

Then there is the Group of Death ¿ G.

Brazil, Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea. Don't know much about North Korea but back in 1966 they really surprised everyone and made it to the quarter finals. I don't think that is going to happen this time around though.

Brazil are obviously the favourites and Ivory Coast are going to have to do without Drogba. Portugal have Ronaldo but I don't think he plays as well for his country as he does for Real Madrid or Manchester United. In fact I don't think Ronaldo scored at all in qualifying. Portugal also leak goals ¿ they scored 24 in qualifying but gave up 16.

Finally in Group H you have Spain, Switzerland, Honduras and Chile.

Euro 2008 champions Spain should move on and I think it may be too tough for Honduras so that second spot will be between Chile and Switzerland. My pick will be Switzerland ¿ they are getting better all the time and Chile give up a lot of goals.

On another note I see West Ham landed Avram Grant as manager and I wish him the best next season. We don't want to be panicking like we did this past season wondering whether we were going to stay up. He also may bring a couple of players in from Portsmouth.

And I suppose it wasn't that much of a surprise that Benitez left Liverpool this week. The last couple of years were not kind to him but he did great after first arriving winning the Champions League in that thrilling game against AC Milan.

Unfortunately for Liverpool fans I can see Torres moving on ¿ he is one of the world's top players and wants to play in the Champions League.