The injuries and absences that changed a World Cup
An ill-timed injury or a last-minute absence can twist a team's fate. Football is also written by those who could not play.
A World Cup is decided not only by those who play, but sometimes by those who cannot. An unfortunate tackle, a muscle injury at the worst moment or an unexpected absence have changed more than one tournament.
The most brutal example is recent. In the 2014 quarter-finals, a knee from Colombia's Zúñiga fractured a vertebra in Neymar's back and left the hosts without their great star for the semi-final. That Brazil, without him and without their suspended captain Thiago Silva, collapsed in historic fashion against Germany: the 1-7 «Mineirazo». It is impossible to know what would have happened with Neymar on the pitch, but few absences have weighed so heavily.
History holds older cases. In 1962, Brazil lost an injured Pelé very early, but saved the title thanks to Garrincha's stellar emergence. Four years later, in 1966, Pelé himself was literally kicked out of the tournament by brutal opposition marking, and Brazil fell in the first round. The same player, two World Cups, two opposite outcomes.
Sometimes the absence comes before kick-off. Entire teams have travelled to a World Cup without their most decisive player because of a last-minute injury, and have had to reinvent themselves on the fly, with mixed results.
These stories have something melancholy about them: they are the ones of «what if». Football does not allow conditionals, but the fan cannot help imagining them.
That is why, as a World Cup approaches, every medical report is read under a magnifying glass. In 2026, more than one tie could be decided not by what happens on the pitch, but by who manages to get there fit.
Source: Wikipedia (Neymar; 2014 FIFA World Cup; Pelé; 1962 and 1966 FIFA World Cups).