4. Djibril Cisse

Cisse suffered his horrific injury as he was confronted by Blackburn defender Jay McEveley in a Premier League match. The French striker appeared to catch his foot in the turf and went down in obvious pain. Brad Friedel, Blackburn's former goalkeeper, immediately indicated the severity of the injury, and Cisse was eventually carried off on a stretcher.

More tragic is that in France's warm-up match against China on June 7, 2006, Cisse suffered another broken leg ten minutes into the game when he was knocked off balance by the Chinese captain Zheng Zhi and fell with his leg twisting under him. Immediate surgery to repair his fractured tibia followed the accident and ruled him out of the tournament.