World Cup 2022: The 10 best players who will be absent from Qatar including Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah

Qatar 2022 is fast approaching and it will be a chance for the greatest players in the modern game to strut their stuff in front of the watching world. Beyond yer Messis and and yer Ronaldos, fans was be positively salivating at the prospect of watching Kylian Mbappe, Kevin de Bruyne, Neymar, Robert Lewandowski and many, many others in action.

Ad However, despite the glut of talent on show, spare a thought for those teams who failed to qualify, and in particular, the stars who will miss out on all the fun and games at the tournament. Premier League'No question' — Ferdinand makes Haaland Ballon d'Or prediction17/09/2022 AT 17:14 Here we take a look at some of the best players who won't be at the World Cup this year.

Erling Haaland The obvious place to start is with the free-scoring Manchester City striker whose Norway team could only finish third in their UEFA qualifying group behind Netherlands and Turkey. Haaland himself found the target five times in the 10 qualifying games to make it 21 goals in just 23 games for his country — but he won’t be adding to that tally in Qatar.

Mohamed Salah Africa’s patently unfair qualifying process will see a number of top teams and players absent from the tournament in Qatar, and perhaps none bigger than the unfortunate Egyptian, Salah. Liverpool’s main man missed a penalty in a playoff shootout defeat to Senegal, meaning that he won’t be able to display his considerable talent on the world stage.

After injury impacted his tournament in 2018, Salah may have to wait another four years to finally get a proper chance at the tournament, by which time he will be just shy of 34 years old. Luis Diaz Another Liverpool star who will be watching the tournament from home will be the dazzling Diaz