Every World Cup is defined partly by absence. In 2026 the list is long and aching — Italy missing for a third straight time, Ekitike and Estêvão lost to injury, Rodrygo and Militão watching from home. As the football starts, it's worth a thought for the names the group stage won't feature.
The biggest ghost is a whole nation. Italy's third successive failure — four-time winners, absent again, in the easiest qualifying cycle ever devised — is the structural scandal that the opening-night fireworks will quietly paper over.
Around it sits a roll-call of the injured: Ekitike's ruptured Achilles, Estêvão's hamstring, and the wave that took Rodrygo and Militão. A 48-team field is the most inclusive in history, and still the absences shape the story.
A World Cup is defined as much by who's missing as by who lifts it. Spare a thought for the ghosts.
The tournament we get is always haunted, just a little, by the one we don't.
Sources: ESPN — Italy analysis · Goal — biggest stars to miss out.