Eight stars who have seen their World Cup dreams cruelly dashed by injury

The World Cup will be without some big names (Picture: Getty)

Playing at the World Cup is one of the proudest moments of any footballer’s career.

But for some of the biggest stars in the game, their World Cup 2026 dream has turned into a nightmare, with injury robbing them of the chance to appear in North America this summer.

Several of these players have seen their dreams dashed agonisingly close to the start of the tournament, which gets underway on Thursday.

Metro takes a look at some of the stars who will be forced to watch the action at home like the rest of us over the next few weeks.

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