Celtic trio among World Cup players to watch

The recovery under Gordon Strachan has come too late for that. But at least in Brazil there will be some players we know well, including three from Celtic - Emilio Izaguirre, Efe Ambrose and Fraser Forster.

Georgios Samaras will also be there. But Tom Rogic will be bitterly disappointed to have been dropped from the Australian squad at the last moment.

He must go away and focus - not on missing what would have been the highlight of his career, but on fully recovering from the groin injury which has led to him being omitted.

I really can't wait for it to start. South Africa 2010 was a bit disappointing, but a World Cup in Brazil has something magic about it.

There are a lot of issues surrounding the competition, and many Brazilians are unhappy at how much money has been spent on staging it.

I just hope that, when it gets going, the football brings everyone together because, with all the controversy about Qatar 2022, the game needs a good World Cup.

Of course, we will all be very interested to see how England fare.

There is not the usual hype about them because, in recent tournaments, they haven't done well. They have clung on to that success back in 1966 for so long.

Expectation is low that they can do anything like that this time around.

But you can be sure that the deeper they get into the competition, the more that expectation will rise again.

Fortunately for the players, because they will be tucked away in their base camp, they can screen this out.

They will need to because, with the heat and the humidity, it is going to be tough for them.

In fact, I think England will do well just to get out of their group.

My tips? I can't see past the hosts and Argentina.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here