Mysterious Man Contemplates the Horror of Rio’s Injury

The news that Rio Ferdinand has come a cropper in training and injured his knee, thus ruling himself out of the World Cup, was greeted with shock in the ThreeMatchBan household.

Together we’d thought that the majority of England players had successfully made their way through the mine-field of international friendlies unscathed and were all ready for World Cup action.

The fact that the injury felled the captain was an even greater blow that mildly troubled us, however not nearly as much as it troubled the disbelieving onlooker in the paparazzi snapped pic that has been smeared all over the bulletins on news websites.

With a sense of sheer disbelief, the unnamed gent stands there, unable to look away, remaining transfixed on the sight of the hobbling Rio in front of him.

Like a man who’s witnessed a great atrocity, everything around him has lost importance as he stands alone and stares vacantly and open mouthed into the void of time, consumed by the horrific sight that faces him.

Who is this mysterious man though? Who is this man that seemingly has been so affected by the injury to our inspirational captain?

I’m sure there’s a part of us all that would love to feel the same amount of emotion for the England cause that this bystander has shown, but I just don’t.

Not that I don’t want England to enjoy success in South Africa, but I just don’t feel that Rio is an integral part of the team and is replaceable.

In fact, I quite enjoyed letting the idea that he’s somehow merked himself wash over me, taking particular pleasure in using the word merk, or even that there’s another hilarious prankster in the squad who has merked Rio and caused his injury.

Had the injury befell Rooney, I would be inconsolable and ready to boycott the World Cup in utter disappointment at out inevitable impending failure, but thankfully it didn’t.

Rio’s been plagued with injury this season and has been restricted in his first-team appearances and is possibly the least in-form centre-back in the squad.

Whilst he has a wealth of experience, he has looked far from his sharp and reliable self, so the opportunity to give a player in better form a run like Ledley King could be a blessing in disguise, but then again his knees are knackered too.

I think I now understand the true extent of the mysterious onlookers horror.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Friday June 4, 2010.
Tags: Rio Ferdinand , England

Comments

Sam · Sunday June 6, 2010 ·

Rio should never have been made captain in the first place when it was glaring obvious to anyone with knowledge of the game that he was going to struggle to be fit for the World Cup, never mind be in good form. I think it would be fair to say that ‘good form’ is something which Rio has managed to evade for the majority of his career, but recently he has made Calamity James of 10 years ago seem like a rock-steady cross-claiming pillar of the form community.

Dawson has shown over the last two seasons at Spurs that he is more than capable of representing in SA. Not that he will be given the chance of course, that honour will surely fall in the lap of Ledley King, for the first game at least. It remains to be seen whether his Paul McGrath-esque, cartilage-barren knees can cope with the relentless schedule that a World Cup brings.

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