Didier Drogba suffers fractured arm against Japan

News that the Ivory Coast captain, Didier Drogba, has suffered a suspected fractured arm during a World Cup warm up game with Japan has rocked the entire continent. Early indications are that Drogba will miss the entire length of the World Cup and that’s a devastating blow, not only for his country ivory Coast, who he captains, but for the World Cup in general, Africa especially, as Drogba is an African icon and the man many were pinning their hopes on ending this 30-year long World Cup drought on the African continent.

Drogba was replaced after just 19 minutes as ivory Coast recorded a 2-0 win over Japan in Switzerland. It was to be Ivory Coast’s final warm up game before the finals, where they will take on Brazil, Portugal and North Korea in 2010′s edition of the ‘Group of Death’. Without Didier Drogba, their inspirational leader and biggest goal threat, Les Elephants odds of progressing have now lengthened, with SportingBet and PaddyPower both going 40/1 now on ivory Coast lifting the trophy. Sven Goran Eriksson will now need to find a suitable replacement, an impossible task if you ask me, before Ivory Coast face Portugal on June 15th in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Didier Drogba hasn’t yet been ruled out of the finals, although it doesn’t look at all good for the Chelsea man, who finished the 2009-2010 Premiership season with the Golden Boot. More on this subject when we get it.