The 33 year old midfielder and captain of the German National Squad Michael Ballack will miss the 2010 world cup due to an injury.

Ballack suffered the tear of the interior ligaments in his right ankle during his club's 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Portsmouth. The injury was caused by a heavy tackle from Kevin-Prince Boateng.

The Chelsea midfielder joins the injury list for Germany, a list that includes Rene Adler and Simon Rolfes.

This is a very unfortunate event as this was most likely to be the German's final world cup. Joachim Lowe lost an essential piece of the squad, surely irreplaceable.