World Cup update: Marco Reus injury blow for Germany: Yet another World Cup marred by player injuries & fatigue?

French superstar Frank Ribery, and German star Marco Reus are the latest key players to join the growing list of big names missing from the World Cup 2014 due to injury.

Like South Africa 2010, the list of injured big name players is growing by the day. Russian Captain Shirokov, Reus & Ribery are the latest names to join the growing list which already included the likes of Falcao (Colombia) Montolivo (Italy) Walcott (England) Gundogan, Bender (both brothers) & Gomez (Germany), Montes (Mexico), Holland's Strootman &  Van der Vaart &  Thiago Alcantara (Spain).

On top of that many European based players, are struggling to shake off niggling injuries after yet another big European season.

Whilst Marco Reus got injured this morning in a warm up match vs Armenia, the intensely competitive & crowded European calendar is directly responsible for the likes of Diego Costa, Ronaldo, Germany's Schweinsteiger, Lahm & Neuer who re all struggling with injury & fatigue & racing against time to be fully fit for the World Cup.

This is a shame for both fans & teams' prospects as world class players fail to appear in the game's international showcase.

Marco Reus's injury is a huge blow to Germany's prospects in Brazil. The German coach Low, has chosen only one out & out striker in final 23 & instead relies on the likes of Reus to provide the creativity & goals. Germany were hit with the injury of their Captain & playmaker Michael Ballack (in FA Cup final) just before the 2010 World Cup & missed his presence in the tight semi final vs Spain in 2010. Whilst Reus may not be of the same stature & influence, I have no doubt Germany will miss his goalscoring talents & his injury is a massive blow to the team's confidence.

Low however, in a show of defiance has called up inexperienced defender Mustafi to replace Reus therefore suggesting that he believes the likes of Muller, Ozil, Podolski, Goetze, Draxler, Schurlle & Schweinsteger are more than capable of doing the job for him. At least on paper, he may be right!

Liverpool & Bayern struggling in the absence of their creative playmakers & lack of goals against defensive teams

At the beginning of the season, I had great hopes for my two favourite football teams, Bayern Munich & Liverpool. I predicted Liverpool would win their first EPL title and their first since 1989. I had even higher hopes for my beloved Bayern predicting they would recapture the Bundesliga title and would even get to the CL final!

And what disastrous campaigns  both are having! Both are suffering from similar problems:

Injuries to Gerrard & Ribery respectively (although good to see Gerrard back in the second half against Birmingham)
Inability to score to win against packed defenses even with the lion share of possession in many crucial matches
Injury to the likes of Torres & Toni
And most crucially, players' inability to adapt to Rafa & Van Gaal's ever revolving tactical variations & player rotation systems (although Van Gaal has only been around this year whilst Rafa is notorious for doing this)

Both teams are now in serious danger of missing qualification to the second round of the CL, and losing too much ground to the leading teams in their respective domestic leagues. (both are quite a few points behind already)

Liverpool fans love Rafa & so far have stood by him, whilst Bayern fans have already started booing their team and murmurs of demands of retribution against the coach are beginning to spread.

In case of Bayern, whilst I was never a fan of Van Gaal & thought Frank Rijkaard was the best man for the job, I believe the legendary management team of Rumminegge & Hoeness got their transfer strategy badly wrong last summer and miscalculated some great opportunities in the process and as a result they should reappraise their strategy going forward.

As for Liverpool, I am not sure what the immediate solution is but Rafa has now had one win out of nine (6 losses) and surely the good will towrds him has its limitations.

And as a die hard fan of both clubs, I am still hoping for a major turn around in form & results by Christmas!