According to the BBC, Cole will possibly require surgery on the ankle problem and his Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said he “did not know” if Cole would recover in time to play in South Africa.
Former Chelsea left back Graeme Le Saux, was equally pessimistic, stating, “I’ve spoken to someone at the club who said there’s a high probability [Cole] will need surgery. The timing couldn’t be worse because he’s right on the fringe of being nearly ready to play in a major tournament. It’s really against the clock.”
The injury came about courtesy of a tackle from US international Landon Donovan, however the challenge was quite innocuous and appeared to be a legitimate challenge without the intention to hurt Cole so it would be difficult for Cole to cite that Donovan was negligent in his challenge and make a claim for compensation and indeed it would be a surprise were he to do so. However, he would be by no means the first to put forward such a claim.
Former West Ham and England striker Dean Ashton was rumoured to be contemplating bringing an action against Manchester City’s Shaun Wright-Phillips for a tackle under similar circumstances which forced him to retire earlier this year through injury, and in 1998 former Bradford City striker Gordon Watson successfully sued Huddersfield Town defender Kevin Gray for a tackle which broke his leg. The High Court in Leeds decided that Gray was liable for the sliding tackle which caused the injury as he executed it negligently. Mr Watson’s QC said that Mr Gray “…jumped at Watson from a significant distance with both feet when there was no reasonable prospect of him obtaining the ball cleanly and without injuring Watson”.