Terry in trouble

The tumultuous season John Terry has enjoyed at Chelsea after being linked in an affair with Wayne Bridge's former beau then being stripped of the England captaincy being knocked out of the Champions League early by old friend Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan before rebounding to win a third premier title in six year seems to have taken one more serious turn for the worse.

Certainly Terry was hoping to put his troubles past him and show that he was in fact still a quality leader for the 3 Lions at South Africa, but now that all appears to be in doubt.

After taking a serious knock in training and being taken to the hospital the preliminary fear is that Terry has broke the metatarsal bone in his foot. England and Chelsea will not know the results from today's x-rays until tomorrow, but the fact that Chelsea have already said Terry will most likely not play Saturday in the FA Cup final vs. Portsmouth is not a good sign. England famously have had to deal with a major metatarsal blow prior to each of the last two World Cups - David Beckham suffered one two months before the 2002 World Cup and Wayne Rooney suffered one about a month and a half before 2006. Terry will not have that type of recovery time as now the start of the World Cup for England is 30 days away.

For England it is clearly a major blow. Terry is arguably when on form the best center defender in the world not only in defense but also going forward as a goal-scoring option on free kicks.

Not only that but their other star central defender Rio Ferdinand has not exactly been a pillar of health this season at Old Trafford. There was a reason Fabio Capello called Liverpool's Jamie Carragher out of retirement, he needed options at center defense. England also may be without their primary holding midfielder Garreth Barry, who sustained a major ankle sprain last week.

For U.S. fans the more injury news for England the better seeing as the 3 Lions are the U.S.'s first opponent. For England fans, who hoped 2010 would be their first World Cup triumph since 1966, the news is just further proof that they are jinxed.