Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien will find out this week if he has any chance of playing in South Africa. He suffered an injury to his knee in January and has not had any on pitch action while the ligaments have healed.

This heading may be teasing for football fans throughout the world but it is a fact. Germany’s Captain Michael Ballack has been ruled out of the World Cup 2010. The cause is the ankle injury Ballack got in the FA Cup final last Saturday. Nothing works against the fortune and this is exactly what has happened with Michael Ballack.

South Africa put in a solid performance against Thailand on May 16 as they humbled them 4-0 before a crowd of 30,000 in Nelspruit, equaling the nation’s previous biggest win against Chad in 2007. However, don’t read too much into it as many supporters don’t consider 105th-ranked Thailand to be a tough enough test for [...]

The latest World Cup country to put forward its preliminary 30 man squad is Algeria, who join England, the USA and Slovenia in Group C. Algeria are planning to add another five players to the preliminary squad on the 11th May, just ahead of the team starting their World Cup training camp in Switzerland.

If you are considering betting on the outcomes of the groups in the World Cup, Bodog.com is offering a number of different betting combinations and options, from predicting the group finishing positions of the teams to a straight forecast.

After their disappointing draw with North Korea last week, South Africa are back to winning ways having defeated Jamaica 2-0 in a pre World Cup friendly on Wednesday. The match was held in Germany, where South Africa have had a training camp for the past few weeks, building on the training programme they started off [...]

The head coach of host country South Africa’s national team Carlos Alberto Parreira has announced his preliminary squad for the 2010 World Cup. The preliminary squad contains 29 men, which will need to be whittled down to the final line up of 23 in time for the tournament which kicks off on the 11th of [...]

As one of the contenders for the coveted Golden Boot at this year’s World Cup finals tournament in South Africa, Wayne Rooney has spoken about his desire to prove he is the best in the world.

A poll today showed that more than half of people in the UK would be afraid to visit World Cup host nation South Africa, due to the reputation for crime and danger.

England striker Wayne Rooney is the third favourite to win the 2010 World Cup Golden Boot with UK bookmakers, with the best price currently looking like 12-1 from Victor Chandler. 888sport and Tote are both offering 11-1, and the worst current price is 8-1 from Ladbrokes.