Absent Heroes

Today’s live football is limited to a couple of women’s world cup qualifiers (don't worry, that will all change in a couple of days):

Poland vs Scotland (14:30 BBC Alba)

Wales vs Russia (19:00 BBC Two Wales)

There are also the absolute last friendlies before the big kick-off, Paraguay vs Japan in Innsbruck and Poland vs Lithuania in Warsaw, but neither televised.

Comfortable win for Belgium last night, but an injury to Eden Hazard was not good news, although it turned out to be not as serious as it first looked.More of a dead leg than anything else. Always the danger with friendlies so close to a major tournament, but they are a necessary evil, and even training can lead to problems, as Manuel Lanzini found out as he ruptured his anterior knee ligament while working with Argentina and has had to be replaced. With 736 players heading to Russia, there are bound to be some casualties along the way.

That’s not counting the ones who didn’t qualify of course, so how about this for a team of non-attendees:

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

Alex Sandro (Brazil)

Leonardo Bonucci (Italy)

Virgil Van Dijk (Netherlands)

Sergi Roberto (Spain)

Fabinho (Brazil)

Dimitri Payet (France)

Leroy Sané (Germany)

Mario Götze (Germany)

Gareth Bale (Wales)

Karim Benzema (France)

Subs:

Sergio Romero (Argentina)

Edin Dzeko (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Cesc Fabregas (Spain)

Juan Mata (Spain)

Scott Brown (Scotland)

Victor Wanyama (Kenya)

Arjen Robben (Netherlands)

Certainties to win the whole thing.