Imagine the aching disappointment of Darren Bent and Theo Walcott as they watched England face the United States in Rustenburg, South Africa, from the comfort of their own homes, knowing how close they were to being at the World Cup. It's a feeling that West Ham legend Tony Cottee knows only too well.
Bent and Walcott were discarded by Fabio Capello on June 1 as the coach cut down his squad. Walcott had collected a hat-trick against Croatia in World Cup qualifying, while Bent was the third-highest scorer in the 2009-10 Premier League season, with 24 goals.
Cottee, like Bent, was a potent striker at club level over many seasons who thought he'd done enough to make two England World Cup squads: in 1986, when he was voted PFA Young Player of the Year and in 1990, not long after becoming the most expensive player to be signed by a British club as he moved from West Ham to Everton.
'Of course it was difficult because it is every footballer's dream to play in a World Cup and I came so close,' Cottee said. 'Bent and Walcott will count themselves unlucky, and no doubt be wondering what might have been.'
As a 17-year-old, Walcott was controversially thrust from obscurity into the England squad at Germany 2006 by then manager Sven Goran Eriksson in what many saw as an investment in the future. But he didn't play a single minute, and the Arsenal winger is now further from his World Cup dream.
Bent, of Sunderland, will be 30 by the time Brazil 2014 rolls around and may have run out of time to convince the doubters, having earned just six goalless caps since making his debut against Uruguay in March 2006.