JAMIE CARRAGHER branded the timing of the World Cup as “disgusting” with minor injuries threatening to rule players out.
Raphael Varane will miss France’s defence at Qatar 2022 after the Manchester United man pulled his hamstring at Chelsea while Liverpool’s Diogo Jota is out for Portugal.
And Son Heung-min now faces a race against time to make it on the plane.
The Tottenham forward and South Korea captain suffered a horror eye injury after a blow to the cheekbone in Tuesday’s crunch Champions League win at Marseille.
Son had to be subbed off and has just three weeks for his swollen eye to recover before his country kick off their World Cup campaign against Uruguay on November 24.
The tournament starts on November 20, just seven days after the final Premier League matches – giving stars virtually no time to recover from even minor problems.
Carragher is furious that placing the tournament in the middle of the regular season means some of the best players will not be there.
The Liverpool legend blasted to World Cup is in the position it’s in, for lots of reasons.
“It was corrupt that Qatar were given the World Cup, we knew that at the time.
“They campaigned on having it in the summer, it is impossible there to have a World Cup in the summer with the temperature, it gets moved to the situation where it is now in the middle of the season.
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“Players who spend their whole lives dreaming of playing in a World Cup and now could be [out injured] – as we’ve seen with Son and players all around the world.
“Varane was crying coming off the pitch at Stamford Bridge. That’s how close we are to a World Cup.
“An injury, a ten-day or two-week injury, is going to keep players out of a World Cup and it should not be happening.
“And it all started with Fifa giving Qatar the World Cup and then moving it. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.”
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As well as Varane and Jota, there are a whole host of other players either definitely out or desperately rushing to get back to fitness in time before the managers name their squads in less than a fortnight.
Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Pedro Neto will watch the tournament from home while Paulo Dybala, Romelu Lukaku, Reece James, Kyle Walker, Kalvin Phillips, Marco Reus, Raul Jiminez, Matthijs de Ligt and Ronald Araujo are doubts.
England trio James, Walker and Phillips are doing all they can to be back in time.
Pep Guardiola admitted he would not give his Manchester City duo game time just to help Gareth Southgate – and acknowledged they may well be undercooked if they do go to Qatar.
Meanwhile, James told SunSport he is not giving up hope of recovering from his knee injury, despite still being in a brace and on crutches.
