Well due to something going wrong with the naming of my team they shall be known as Heskey. Team is:

James

Maicon
Pique
Vidic
Alves

Xavi
Ribery
Sneijder

Villa
Rooney
Fabiano

Bench is much of a muchness.

He probably didn't even touch him. He just ran past him and the wind managed to do Ferdinand's knee. You wouldn't have thought it given Ferdinand's "Man of Steel" season he's just had, would you?

While I'm disappointed for him, I'm delighted that he'll be rested over the summer rather than playing in the WC.

Give over.

Not good, England's central defence looks awfully vulnerable to pace now.

JT, despite his qualities, needs a quick partner to help him out. Can King manage it with his shot knee?

Agree with some on here about Gerrard. This is his time to shine, I think he'll thrive off being given the armband and impose himself on games like he does for Liverpool.

Gutted for the Ivory Coast/African mob that Drogba is out as he is a proper hero and idol down there and 1,000's couldn't wait to see him play and won't in such a big event there again to be fair.

How much can Gerrard thrive on the left side, captain's armband or not? I'd stick Joe Cole in on the left and move Gerrard to the middle if we're to see the best of him.

Arjen Robben the latest star name to be in doubt. He limped out of a 6-1 win over Hungary and is off for a scan on a hamstring injury

Wouldn't surprise me if Gerrard moved to the middle at some stage. We lack a bit of drive when he's not in the Centre of the park. Lampard and Barry are good players but they don't travel with the ball and bring that energy that Gerrard does.

We could play the 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation that many premiership sides, including Man U, utilise.

Barry holds, allowing both Gerrard and Lampard freedom to bomb on from central midfield, Joe Cole or SWP goes wide left and Lennon on the right with Rooney on his own up front in the role he's revelled in this season.

John Obi Mikel is out of the tournament for Nigeria.

Just seen a training video from englands camp on the FA website.

Capellos english is alot better than he let's on in interviews. I think maybe the pressure of saying the right thing affects it.

I'm starting to gain in confidence now.

Capello will have us prepared.

This is th elongest time the team will have had to spend with capello and i think we'll get better as the tournament goes on.

A lot of Premier League players are out of the WC already

Another thing that is driving Capello is the nightmare of his only World Cup appearance in 1974, the squad was torn apart by in fighting, ill discipline and bad preparation, and went home early.

Its quoted that it still haunts him today and vowed it wouldn't happen to England

Anyone think Holland have a chance. Been destroying teams in friendlies lately.

A couple of Dutch guys I know are resigned to getting to the quarters then losing to Brazil.

Not sure Holland have the depth if they get a couple of injuries, and they are defensively vulnerable against the better teams for me, but they are definitely in that group of teams in behind the obvious favourites Brazil and Spain (neither of which I am convinced about).

If the likes of van Persie, Robben and van de Vaart stay fit, Holland have a great chance to win the world cup. In my opinion their defence is a bit suspect, with the likes of Ooijer lacking in pace and not of the international calibre. Going forward though they are a great team to watch.

[url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/world-cup-2010/tragedy-for-world-cup-keeper-socceroos-star-brad-jones-son-luca-has-cancer/story-fn4ke077-1225876239294Sad news for Brad Jones[/url.

Friendlies don't mean sh*t.

Too many variables and different approaches for you to gauge a teams potential chances on how they do in friendlies.

Capello is single minded and determined.

sven used to say ''we hope we can win the world cup, of course''

Under capello it's ''anything less than the final is failure, the final is my target''.

I think in all the negativity about past underachievments and the quality of our team, we forget that we have capello, who's a damned good manager. We'll be very Italian. We'll be disciplined, very hard to play against and will have clever snappy counter attacks. Italy are the most sucessful european team in WC history, so it's not a bad recipe.

For many of our stars this will be their last chance. Terry, lampard, gerrard may not get another world cup. They will leave everything out on the pitch.

Also, look at how much better our preperation is.

This time we've had 2 friendlies against world cup teams and have a training game this week.

In 2006 we played jamaica who weren't competing at the world cup..........that's it! We beat them easily and thought we were the dogs balls.

I expect us to win all our group games but I expect scrappy performances. When we switch to 4-5-1 in the knockout stages that's when our performances will hit a peak.

Not sure if England will win it, think it may just be too much but we're in with a shout and I'm confident under Capello we should do well. The thing that strikes me about Capello is if things aren't going right, he's not afraid to change things which was a downfall with Sven and McLaren as they didn't seem to have a plan B.

They're a bit like England in that they are a very good side but seem to be missing something when it comes down to the crunch games. Think their squad this year is a bit weak compared to previous World Cups and will be interesting to see how they do. They should be pretty good in attack but think their defence is bit suspect and could let them down.

I like the look of the dutch but their look very vulnerable at the back, also the infighting will kick in soon.

I think it's wide open, Braxil are a good side but they don't have the star players they used to have. Robinho and Elano did little in the PL and Kaka has been poor all season. Spain are a very good passing side but they have injuries/form worries over the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Torres plus the fact they usually disappoint in the big tournaments apart the last Euros. The there are teams like Argentina, England, Holland, France, Italy and Germany all of which are capable of winning it. For dark horses I reckon Mexico and Serbia will go well.

I do hope it's an open world cup, I have a feeling it could be a very boring one with teams adopting a safety first attitude which would mean not a lot of attacking football. Hope I am wrong though.

Awful news. Puts the 'importance' of the World Cup into perspective.