World Cup 2022 LIVE: James Maddison misses training as Sven-Goran Eriksson tips England as tournament favourites

Wales’ first game at a World Cup for 64 years on Monday will see Bale come up against the country where he now plays his club football for Los Angeles FC.

Bale came off the bench to help LAFC to their first MLS Cup triumph, scoring a dramatic injury-time equaliser against Philadelphia Union to set up a successful penalty shootout.

But the start of the 33-year-old’s career in California has been hampered by injuries and the lack of game-time that marked his final years at Real Madrid.

Out of the many facts and figures circulated about Qatar’s problems, there is one realisation that should stand above everything. It is a disgrace that, in 2022, a country can host a World Cup where it has lured millions of people from the poorest countries on earth – often under false pretences – and then forced them into what many call “modern slavery”.

And yet this has just been accepted. The World Cup carries on, an end product of a structure that is at once Orwellian and Kafkaesque. A huge underclass of people work in an autocratic surveillance state, amid an interconnected network of issues that make it almost impossible to escape. “It’s all so embedded,” says Michael Page of Human Rights Watch.

Many will point to similar problems in the west but this isn’t the failure of a system. It is the system, global inequality taken to an extreme. “The bottom line is that these human rights abuses are not normal for a World Cup host,” says Minky Worden, also of Human Rights Watch.

French media outlet L’Équipe are reporting that striker Christopher Nkunku is set to be sidelined for between six-eight weeks with the knee sprain that forced him to withdraw from France’s World Cup squad.

The RB Leipzig forward will undergo further medical tests will give an exact indication of the length of time he is out for after minor injuries to the ligaments in his leg.

Nkunku has been replaced by Randal Kolo Muani, who received the last-minute call-up from Didier Deschamps while on a tour of Japan with his club Eintracht Frankfurt.

Nkunku is said to be optimistic over the nature of the injury, with a cruciate ligament ruled out for the time being. Leipzig next play on January 20th, against Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich, and Nkunku is hopeful he’ll be fit for the game.

The RB Leipzig forward limped out of training on Tuesday and tests have confirmed he will play no part in the tournament.

The World Cup holders were already without Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante due to injury while Raphael Varane is trying to recover from an issue in time to be fit to play.

Nkunku had enjoyed a fine first half of the campaign, scoring 12 goals to sit top of the scoring charts in Germany.

England’s James Maddison was absent for this morning’s training session for Gareth Southgate’s squad.

The news coming out of the camp says that Maddison sat out the session as a precautionary measure to manage his workload following a knee issue but there are no major concerns over the midfielder.

Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez opened the scoring after being teed-up by Messi in the 17th minute before Angel Di Maria netted a quick-fire brace.

Messi then struck his 91st goal for his country and Joaquin Correa added a fifth on the hour mark as one of the favourites for the tournament in Qatar played their final match before the Group C opener against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

But Eriksson says skipper and Three Lions stalwart Kane is the one player England need to be on top of his game if they are to lift the trophy next month.

“It’s Harry Kane, for sure,” Eriksson told the PA news agency. “He is the one who will score the goals and if he is in good shape England can do it.