On the day Chelsea clinch the Premiership title, every England fan's worst fears are realised.
At approximately 2.10pm on Saturday 29th April 2006, England's hopes of winning the World Cup in Germany this summer took a giant (and some would say terminal) dive.
Chelsea's Paulo Ferreira put in a strong tackle on Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and clearly won the ball. Although the challenge wasn't a foul it left the Manchester United front man writhing in agony in the Chelsea penalty box in evident distress.
An unearthly hush fell over Stamford Bridge (not an arena previously noted for it's compassion towards opposition players) and the same quiet concern would have been evident in living rooms and pubs across the land as the fans of the national team could see the nightmare of an injury to England's most important player becoming reality.
With only six weeks to go before England kick off their World Cup campaign against Paraguay in Frankfurt this was very bad news indeed. Rumours quickly circulated that Rooney had broken his leg, which would have meant about four months out for the 20 year-old.
In actuality, Rooney hadn't broken his leg but had snapped the base of a bone that is tattooed in the collective psyche of English football fans: the dreaded metatarsal.
Each human foot has five metatarsals and they are the uppermost bones of the toes. Normally these unobtrusive parts of the skeleton would carry no special significance for anyone but podiatrists or foot fetishists. But for England fans these are the most treacherous bones in the body and have caused more heartbreak over the years than any other.
Rooney had previously broken his fifth metatarsal (or his little toe to you and me) against Portugal in the quarterfinals of Euro 2004 and not only did England lose that match on penalties (the traditional English exit from a tournament) they looked hopelessly adrift without his presence on the pitch. It was 14 weeks before he returned the next season. Using that timescale, Rooney couldn't even feature in the later stages of the World Cup, assuming England even qualify from their group.
And it's not just Rooney who has suffered from the curse of the metatarsal. Before the last World Cup in Japan and Korea, David Beckham suffered a similar injury to his second metatarsal, eight weeks before the World Cup - although he played at that tournament, he clearly wasn't fit, a fact he later admitted and despite Israeli spoon-bender Uri Geller exhorting the nation (via the front page of the Sun newspaper) to send healing thoughts to David's toe.
On the same day that Rooney suffered his injury, another high profile England player was making his own comeback from yet another metatarsal break. Rooney's England strike partner, Michael Owen, made his first appearance for Newcastle United in 2006 after a massive 17 weeks of inactivity. And promptly limped off the field at the end of his match against Birmingham City, later claiming that his supposedly-healed toe wasn't "100% right".
In spite of subsequent positive reports from Newcastle, doubts must remain over how sharp Owen will be for a World Cup with only one more Newcastle game this season and two friendlies with England. As for Rooney, England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson says that he will take him and gamble that he will play some part in the tournament, although disapproving noises have been made from Manchester United, no doubt worried that their star player will be risked by the national side when he's not fully fit.
So, a thoroughly depressing weekend for England fans and even the most optimistic must harbour doubts over the team's ability to win the World Cup this summer with a half-fit Owen and without Rooney at all. Can anything be done? Well, I reckon my metatarsals are up to the job. If anyone at the English Football Association wants to make me an offer, I'm open to suggestions - after all I can probably do without a couple of metatarsals for six weeks in the summer. Failing that, let's keep everything crossed that there are no more injuries in the last round of Premiership games this week and hope Uri can weave his magic. OK everyone, let's all focus on that toe...
