2018 World Cup is fast approaching as it will be played hardly an year later and the teams are giving their all to qualify for the prestigious tournament.
Despite the season being over at club level, all major players have returned to their national squads to help their teams make it to the finals of World Cup as World Cup qualifiers are going on at full swing before the pre-season begins.
Over the next few days, there will be a more clearer picture on which teams could completely miss out on the final places in FIFA World Cup. Here are the list of players who are at risk of not playing the upcoming mega event across the continents.
Europe
Netherlands
One of the traditional heavyweights in football, Netherlands have looked off balance since 2014 World Cup as they failed to qualify for 2016 Euros and are in potential danger to miss out on 2018 World Cup place as well.
The Oranje were drawn in a difficult group alongside France, Sweden and are currently at fourth as they play against Luxembourg on Friday.
Top Players : Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum, Daley Blind
Wales
The Wales side are one of the best teams in Europe since 2014 as they have awed everyone with the results and have made it to the semifinals of 2016 Euros. However, all is not well for the Wales side as they are four points behind Serbia and Republic of Ireland.
They have a good chance to reduce the gap with Serbia as the teams clash this weekend in the world cup qualifier.
Top Players: Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey
South America
Argentina
The South American qualifiers are dominated by Brazil as the Selecao have already qualified for the World Cup. But the competition for the other three automatic places got intense with the likes of Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia are all fighting.
A fifth place would see the team play an inter confederation play-off game and the winner will go through. Argentina are currently in fifth place in qualifiers while Chile, Uruguay and Colombia are a point ahead of the American super giants.
Should Argentina fail to qualify, the World Cup will not see the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and many other stars in the next world cup.
Top Players: Lionel Messi, Angel di Maria, Sergio Aguero
Africa
The qualifiers in African continent are still in early days as they have only played two qualifiers so far and will play another four before determining the places for the World Cup.
Big football countries like Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Ghana have started slowly and will need to perform well in the coming months to ensure that they qualify. If they fail to do so, the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Yacine Brahimi, Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulabaly, Mehdi Benatia, Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew will all miss out.
Rest of the World
Australia are struggling in the Asian qualifiers as they are outside the automatic qualification places where as USA are also struggling in CONCACAF as they are set to face Mexico in their next match.
Top Players to miss out: Tim Cahill, Mile Jedinack (Australia), Clint Dempsey, Christian Pulisic, Tim Howard (United States).