Iran, Protugal lose key players

Both Iran and Portugal lost key members of their national teams to injury. The worst was Portugal’s Jorge Andrade, who will miss the tournament. Iran’s Ali Karimi may be back by June, but likely not at 100%.
Bayern Munich player, Ali Karimi was injured in Bayern’s 2-1 loss to Hamburg today. Karimi is one of (if not) Iran’s best players. It is shame when injuries like this happen so close to the cup.
Deportivo la Coruña’s Jorge Andrade went down with a torn tendon in his knee. Ouch. Coupled with Chelsea’s Carvalho, these two made up a pretty fomidable last line. Needless to say the news is devastating to the Lucitanos.
This isn’t the first, nor will it be the last major injury before a world cup. Just off the top of my head, I can think of few injured players who were not match fit even though they did get to play some…
1982-Kevin Keegan, 1986-Zico, 1990-Marco van Basten, 2002-David Beckham.