SELECTION HEADACHES

There's no denying it, we may be thirty days from the start of the tournament but South Africa 2010 is well and truly in full swing.

With squads being announced left, right and centre there is talking point after talking point arising from all corners of the globe and believe it or not there's the odd metatarsal raising it's ugly head, or toe as the case may be.

It seems that South Africa will be a World Cup that will make new international superstars rather than showcasing the ones we are already familiar with. Maradona kicked things off by giving Argentina fans something of a head scratcher as he left out not one, not two, but three big names in his provisional squad.

The legend has left the trio of Javier Zanetti, Fernando Gago and Esteban Cambiasso without a seat on the plane to South Africa. In an apparent catching trend Ronaldinho has been omitted by the Brazilians, Ruud van Nistelrooy overlooked by the Dutch, Luca Toni and Francesco Totti ignored by the Azzuri and Patrick Vieira left out of the France squad.

That crazy Raymond Domenech has also left out Arsenal's Samir Nasri and decided that Real Madrid's £30 million striker Karim Benzema is not one of the top eight French strikers with the twenty-two year old told to take a holiday somewhere other than South Africa this summer.

In other news, Mexico have named just five midfielders in a thirty man squad and New Zealand have selected two men who don't have clubs.

On the home front it's somewhat less surprising that there is no Michael Owen in the England squad and for injury reasons David Beckham has also missed out. However don't think Fabio Capello has it all that easy, since naming Rio Ferdinand the new England captain the Manchester United defender has struggled to string two games together while there are strong whispers that John Terry has done his metatarsal (that's a toe to us simpletons).

The first choice replacement is Tottenham Hotspur's Ledley King, a man who has such injury problems that he doesn't train for the Premier League outfit, but admittedly it doesn't seem to effect his performances on the pitch. King was an integral part of Spurs successful charge to fourth place this season and you'd bet your house on him to put his career on the line for the cause.

Other backups in the centre back position are the untried Michael Dawson, the uninspiring Matty Upson and the un-retired Jamie Carragher all of whom would have to string together an immediate understanding to give England some leadership at the back.

When is this tournament over? I've already got a headache.