Senegal superstar Sadio Mane has been ruled out of the World Cup in a devastating blow to that nation’s chances.
Argentina fans have been filmed singing a racist and transphobic chant targeted towards the French side in a live TV moment gone horribly wrong.
Meanwhile, an England star has revealed his extreme confidence that the Three Lions can bring home the trophy with a very cheeky act.
And the Dutch team shared an extremely special moment at training with migrant workers in Qatar as one of the World Cup’s biggest talking points rolls on.
All that and more in today’s World Cup Daily!
SADIO MANE RULED OUT
Senegal star Sadio Mane has been ruled out of the 2022 World Cup because of an injury to his right fibula, the country’s football Federation announced on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, today’s MRI shows us that the improvement is not as favourable as we imagined and unfortunately we have to withdraw Sadio from the World Cup,” said the team doctor, Manuel Afonso in a video on the official Senegal Twitter account.
30-year-old Mane recently finished second in the voting for the Ballon d’Or, the prestigious award that decides the best player of the season.
He played a crucial role in guiding Senegal to their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations title in February, scoring the winning penalty in a shootout win over Egypt in the final. A month later, he also scored the crucial penalty as the Teranga Lions beat Egypt – and former Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah – in another shootout to qualify for the World Cup.
Mane injured his right fibula in a 6-1 Bayern Munich win over Werder Bremen a week and a half ago, but was still named in the Senegal squad – with hopes he could be fit enough to feature in the later group stage games.
Mane remained in Germany for further testing and treatment instead of travelling with the rest of the Senegal squad to Qatar. However, he will now undergo surgery and miss the tournament.
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ARGENTINA FANS’ HORRIBLE CHANT
Argentina have one of the strongest cases to win the World Cup, but their fans have hit an ugly low before the tournament even kicks off.
Argentina sports TV channel TyC Sports filmed a live interview with some fans in Qatar, but things took a turn for the worse when the presenter asked the fans to deliver a chant.
Despite not even being in the same group as the French, the fans took a swipe at the reigning champions with a disgusting chant that included racist, homophobic and transphobic claims.
The fans sang that the French squad are “all from Angola”. Only one Frenchman was born in the African nation, Eduardo Camavinga, whose family moved to France when the Real Madrid star was just two.
The chants also took aim at PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe over rumours he is dating transgender model Ines Rau.
The reporter eventually yelled ‘censored’ as he cut away from the chants – having aired them in full.
ENGLAND STAR’S CHEEKY MOVE
Football’s coming home, as the famous English song declares. And Three Lions midfielder Declan Rice of West Ham is so confident of bringing home the glistening gold trophy that he even took an empty suitcase to Qatar.
As he met up with head coach Gareth Southgate’s side at England’s training ground, St George’s Park, before flying out to Qatar, the 23-year-old was pictured lugging the empty suitcase.
Rice couldn’t help but smile as he joked: “There’s nothing in that one. That’s a spare.
“Hopefully I’ll bring home the trophy in this one.”
Failing that, he might have to buy a Socceroos jersey.
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DUTCH STAR SAYS ‘WE’RE NOT BLIND’ TO MIGRANT ISSUES
Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk said players were “not blind or deaf” to the concerns about migrant workers, whose treatment has been in the spotlight in the build-up to the World Cup in Qatar.
Van Dijk and the rest of the squad met around 20 workers at the end of Thursday’s training session in Doha, signing autographs and playing small-sided games of football with them.
“It’s something we all wanted as a group. That’s why we started this process and it was good to meet each one of them and get to know them a little bit,” said Van Dijk, the Dutch captain.
“You don’t have lots of time but you have small conversations and it gives us the energy because they’re so positive to meet us. For us it was exactly the same.” The build-up to the tournament in Qatar has been dominated by concerns over the Gulf state’s treatment of the workers, women and the LGBTQ community.
Rights groups and media reports say thousands of workers may have died on the huge construction sites. The government calls the claims “outrageous and offensive”, and says it is considering “legal” action to defend the country’s name.
“Obviously we’re not blind, we’re not deaf,” said Van Dijk.
“We see all the news outlets saying so many things about what’s going on over here, so for us it’s good to have our own opinion.
“We have to look ourselves and meet people. It’s not easy because at the end of the day it’s all about playing football. For us it was a big thing and a big point to meet them.”
The Dutch football federation plans to auction the shirts the team will wear at the World Cup and use the proceeds “to improve the situation of migrant workers in Qatar”.
