2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

British tabloid press invented this demeaning term to collectively refer to the wives and girlfriends of the English star footballers at around the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan and then it became an acceptable expression eventually and is no longer specific to English Wags. It has been adapted by other nations and other sports too but the football component is much bigger and high profile in nature

A single wife or girlfriend is called as a Wag, derived as a singular form of Wags, and the profile and lifestyle of that particular Wag, combined with the stardom of the footballer, would escalate her position in Wag circles an media. Victoria "Posh" Beckham, for instance, is termed as "Queen of Wags" owing to her successful pop career in girl band Spicegirls and later as a solo artist. She's often credited for being the inspiration and a factor of success and widespread fame for the word

There have been instances of some of the most famous celebrities in the World being a Wag in football or other sports, nowadays notably in NHL, NBA and MLB, like for instance Madonna had been thrice a Wag owing to her earlier marriages to Dennis Rodman of NBA, Jose Canseco  and Alex Rodriguez of MLB. Kate Hudson, Jessica Biel, Rihanna, Scarlett Johansson, Jenna Jameson and the evergreen Marilyn Monroe had their share of being a Wag, Shakira remains the most famous of all the football Wags, providing tough competition to Posh's Wagdom
Let's look at the famous WAGs we're going to encounter in Brazil, who're ready to set the stadiums on fire

World Cup Wags

Irina Shayk

Shakira

Edurne Garcia Almagro

Antonella Rocuzzo

Sam Cooke

An English page 3 girl and a model, Sam Cooke is the girlfriend of English defender Chris Smaling

Sara Carbonero

The Spanish TV presenter and a sports journalist famously got a kiss from boyfriend Iker Casillas on Live TV while covering the teams victory in the final of 2010 World Cup

Lena Gercke

A German fashion model and a TV host, Lena Gercke has been dating German midfielder Sami Khedira and is known to cause disruptions on and off the field

Yolanthe Sneijder-Cabau

The wife of Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder, Yolanthe is a Spanish-born soap opera star in Netherlands

Jourdan Dunn

A Maybelline model, Jourdan is rumoured to be dating English striker Daniel Sturridge

Alex Curran

Alex Curran is the wife of English star midfielder Steven Gerrard and works as a fashion columnist for the Daily Mirror

Coleen Rooney

Mandy Capristo

Sarah Brandner

Gabriella Lenzi

Honorable Mentions

Wag Misses

The pre-tourney friendlies are one of the most dreaded competitions to happen before a World Cup. There are players, already fatigued by the club competitions throughout the season, who choose to impress the coaches one last time with their skill and commitment, with an aim to cement their place in the squad or push for that last available berth

In doing so, ironically, the footballers tend to play a bit too hard and end up injuring themselves or their opponents. Dreams would be shattered and the team plans tattered. Coaches almost always would be tentative when dealing with the warm ups, they couldn't justify not giving opportunity for a prospect, in pursuit of getting back into form, and at the same time much is at stake in case some of the crucial member of the squad gets injured badly

Some players who carry niggles from their season would be in race to be fit on time to be selected for their team and sometimes they aggravate the injury trying to cheat time. While more than fifteen people missed out on a place in the provisional squads due to chronic or late season injuries, almost as many lost their place on the final squad losing the battle trying to get fit or by acquiring new traumas

Here's the list of players that are going to miss the World Cup despite being on the initial team plans

Falcao lost the race against time in recovering from the Anterior Cruciate Ligament tear he suffered in January

Edwin Valencia was ruled out after he failed to recover from his chronic muscle injury

Thiago managed to recover from his ligament tear successfully before suffering the same injury as soon as he returned to Bayern Squad

The French backup goalkeeper collided with a forward and broke his vertebra playing for Marseille on the final day of French League

Silvio Proto was only named in the squad as a reserve to ailing backup stopper Koen Casteels. Wilmots had to replace him when he broke his arm in the Belgium League finale

Lars Bender suffered a muscle and tendon strain in his thigh during training

He suffered a hamstring tear while playing for QPR in the Championship Playoff match

The most capped dutch player was ruled out after he suffered a calf injury in the training camp

The Korean defender couldn't recover from the ankle injury suffered during training

He suffered a fifth metatarsal fracture on his right foot during training

The friendly between between Mexico and Ecuador turned out to be a gruesome affair when Montes attempted a tackle on Segundo Castillo and broke his leg. Castillo also suffered an ankle injury but was included in the final team

An ankle injury during a friendly against Netherlands and a subsequent surgery ruled out Akaminko from the World Cup

Montolivo broke his leg during a friendly against Ireland

Matias Fernandez was ruled out of the World Cup after undergoing a surgery on his persistent ankle problem

Apart from these players, a few others managed to get into the final rosters despite injuries

• Diego Costa, Spain - Hamstring
• Luis Suarez, Uruguay - Knee
• Frank Ribery, France - Back
• Jonathan De Guzman, Netherlands - Hamstring
• Kolo Toure, Ivory Coast - Malaria
• Sengundo Castillo, Ecuador - Ligament tear

10 days to go for kick off and things are getting just too hot to handle before the start of the much anticipated World Cup in Brazil. There are injuries and there are Injuries, players are ruled out for months but some have recovered just enough to be back in the squad

Managers are juggling between getting a final look at the squad before the final roster but not wanting for the players to overexert themselves in the fear of receiving that unfortunate knock that would not only rule them out but change the entire team's fortunes

Luis Suarez for example underwent an emergency surgery and is in race against time to get back to good touch before their first group game, even Uruguay manager Oscar Tabarez knows that his team's chances would significantly diminish without the star striker. Same is the case with Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Falcao and few other players having to battle out end of season injury bouts to get in top shape for the biggest tourney of their lives

Some of the players to be ruled out, after making it into the initial squads, include Thiago Alacantara (Spain), Steve Mandanda (France), Silvio Proto (Belgium), Lars Bender (Germany), Niko Kranjcar (Croatia), Van der Vaart (Netherlands), Kim Jin-su (Korea), Alviro Saboria (Costa Rica), Edwin Valencia (Colombia), Luis Montes (Mexico), Riccardo Montolivo (Italy), Segundo Castillo (Ecuador)

All the participating nations need to submit their final squads by June 2nd. Check out the links below for all the updated squads:

Qualifiers are one of the cruelest stages of football not just for the teams facing them but also to the players who have to absorb the grueling phase into their already bustling schedule, to the clubs who might miss those special players, who often return with an injury, from their crux matches

Qualifiers leave agony to the teams who fail to make it, even the teams ending up qualifying fall back into a retrospection mode at some point of the timeline. Managers get sacked, icons would end up reeling but some shine through them, like Messi and Ronaldo this time around

Messi had his most successful campaign for Argentina while Cristiano Ronaldo had to summon his other-worldly powers to oust Sweden, the Sweden which has its Zlatan and Zlatan Ibrahimovich is not going to the World Cup, Lewandowsky won't be playing either as is Bale

Some of the most remarkable World Cup misses involve both England, France and Yugoslavia failing to make it for 1994 edition, England missing out earlier in 1974 either. Netherlands in 1986 and 2002, Scotland many times but astonishingly in 1970, and Italy in 1958

Here is the 30-man talented Unqualified All-Stars Squad that misses the World Cup, but can upset some of the big guns if given a chance

*Only the players who are bound to miss the cup owing to their team not qualifying are included

They all have dreams of getting into a World Cup Squad but some freak injury for their club side or, even worse, when training, would rule them out for a few weeks to some months. There are many crucial players who missed World Cup due to injuries and the over cautiousness in the pre-cup games wouldn't help as it would effect their performance and they might not make it to the squad
Some big players have missed World Cups, for instance Beckham and Rooney missed one each for England, Ballack for Germany, Canizares for Spain, Essien for Ghana, Di Stefano for Argentina and even Pele missed a few games

Let's look at some players who missed the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup due to injuries

The biggest event on earth, the FIFA World Cup 2014, is just 30 days away and today's (May 13) the deadline that every participating team has to submit their Provisional Squad not exceeding 30 players. The teams also need to submit their final 23-man squad by June 2

Around two thirds of the teams have announced their preliminary squads, seven of them have already declared the final teams that are flying to Brazil. The rest of third of the teams have scheduled their announcements at different times tonight and it is going to be a media frenzy day in footballing world

Update May 14: All the teams have declared their provisional squads, eight of them have gone a step ahead to announce their final squads

Check out the links below for all the squad announcement details:

Group A

Group E

The only team that has an edge over Brazil in head-to-head international matches and can compete with them consistently is their South American neighbor Argentina.

A force to reckon throughout the 70's and 80's, Argentina have lost a bit of their flair after losing the '90 final but the advent of Lionel Messi would make them one of the favorites of the tourney. The cup being hosted in South America will surely be an advantage for them

Apart from a glorious entry into World Cup football in 1982 Spain, Algeria has been pretty ordinary at the world stage rarely making any mark. Impressive display during the qualifiers would instill hope amongst the team with their aim at Brazil would be to survive the group