With the tournament just two days old there have been a string of injuries to players whose bodies are reacting to the mental and physical strain of international matches a few weeks after a long domestic season.
Alexander Frei damaged cruciate ligaments in his first match, while Portugal’s goalkeeper Quim is out of the whole tournament after breaking a wrist in training. Arjen Robben has got a groin injury in training and is out for at least one match – perhaps more. Ryan Babel is already out for Holland. Italy’s Christian Panucci has suffered a knee injury, and of course Fabio Cannavaro has been ruled out of the whole tournament through injury.
Pavel Pogrebnyak the Russian striker is out of the whole competition with a knee injury picked up in a pre-tournament friendly against Serbia.
While we might not care too much as none of these are Arsenal players, the list of injuries shows just how insane this type of tournament is.
However we can at least be grateful that the first two games have not seen any attacks by players on medical staff – as happened in the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year. (Incidentally I had a load of emails after that incident claiming I was racist for commenting negatively on the Africa Cup. No – I dislike all internationals.
You must be having something on Africa and Africans, why are you bringing in incidents of a past competion into it when you are talking about Euro 2008? Before you start trying to solve Africa and Africans’ problems why don’t you start by solving yours, no respect for referees, selling games, etc etc.