Absent in Russia: The best XI of players not at the 2018 World Cup

By Oliver Young-Myles

The World Cup is the stage for the very best footballers on the planet to congregate once every four years. At least, that is what is meant to happen.

Sadly, some will miss out through injury. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, in the form of his life for Liverpool, will miss out for England due to a knee injury while Laurent Koscielny ruptured his achilles playing for Arsenal, rendering him unavailable for France.

Others, though, will not participate in Russia on account of their nation's failure to qualify. For some, the odds were stacked against them from the outset on account of representing a small nation, while others, playing for historically larger countries, will also spend their summer on a beach somewhere rather than in Russia.

Here is an XI of players that will not be taking part in this summer's World Cup after their nations failed to progress beyond the qualifiers.

Goalkeeper: Jan Oblak (Slovenia)

Anyone with a soul would have felt for Gianluigi Buffon as the tears flowed in the wake of Italy's play-off defeat to Sweden and while goodwill towards him has cooled somewhat in the wake of his defamatory comments towards Michael Oliver, that isn't the reason why his name is absent here.

On form, there are few goalkeepers better than Jan Oblak, whose Slovenia side missed out courtesy of finishing 4th in England's group. Oblak has kept 21 clean sheets in 34 La Liga games for Atletico Madrid this season and (more ridiculously) hasn't conceded in 1,007 minutes at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Right back: Antonio Valencia (Ecuador)

Manchester United's Mr Dependable himself will have to watch a whole host of his club colleagues on TV at home as Ecuador failed to reach their fourth World Cup finals, finishing eighth out of ten teams in the Conmebol qualifying campaign.

Fitness permitting, Valencia is one the first names on Jose Mourinho's teamsheet and is equally relied upon by his country, making 92 appearances since his debut back in 2005.

Centre Back: Virgil Van Dijk (Netherlands)

It's amazing to think that the Netherlands finished third in the World Cup just four years ago considering they have since failed to reach two major tournaments in succession.

Virgil van Dijk will play a key role in getting the Oranje back on track under Ronald Koeman and has already been handed the captain's armband by his former Southampton manager.