JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Major World Cup casualties after Manchester United’s Nani was forced out of the tournament yesterday:

OUT…

Rio Ferdinand (England) — England captain and Manchester United defender Ferdinand suffered knee ligament damage in a training session. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard will stand in as skipper, while coach Fabio Capello drafted in Tottenham’s Michael Dawson as a replacement.

Michael Ballack (Germany) — Ruled out after injuring his ankle in the FA Cup final playing for Chelsea. Defender Philipp Lahm takes over captaincy.

Nani (Portugal) — Manchester United winger ruled out of the tournament after injuring his collarbone in training and will be replaced by Ruben Amorim of Benfica.

David Beckham (England) — Out of contention since March when the former England captain suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon injury playing for AC Milan.

Michael Essien (Ghana) — Never considered after failing to recover in time from a medial ligament tear in his left knee suffered ahead of the African Nations Cup in January.

John Obi Mikel (Nigeria) — Chelsea player left out of Nigeria squad because he did not want to aggravate a knee injury. The 23-year-old replaced by striker Brown Ideye, who plays for French first division side Sochaux.

Lassana Diarra (France) — Real Madrid midfielder laid low by intestinal problem while scaling a glacier with his teammates at France’s pre-World Cup training base in the French Alps.

HURT BUT STILL IN…

Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) — Chelsea star and national team skipper suffered a broken arm during a 2-0 friendly win over Japan.

Arjen Robben (Netherlands) — Out of his country’s World Cup opener against Denmark on Monday after suffering thigh injury in last Saturday’s 6-1 warm-up win against Hungary in Amsterdam.

Fernando Torres (Spain) — Underwent knee operation in April, but the Liverpool striker came on as a substitute in Tuesday’s friendly win over Poland in Murcia and scored in a 6-0 romp.

Andrea Pirlo (Italy) — Out of the defending champions’ opening match against Paraguay in Cape Town on June 14 with a calf strain, although expected to be available for the remainder of the group stage.