HMM. Less than a day after landing in South Africa the England captain's out of the tournament, injured. Injured by Emile Heskey none the less.
He may have had only 12 shots on goal all season, but he's put the captain out of the tournament on the training ground. Impressive effort from the big lad.
I may stand alone here, but I for one am not gutted. Rio's been in and out of form for a while, and there's plenty of decent centre halves knocking around.
Presumably Michael Dawson's booking his plane ticket as we speak. Surely Rio has to be replaced by a centre back? After all what are we left with? Ledley King, a crock who can only play one in three games. John Terry, who this season has been, how to put this nicely, distracted. And Jamie Carragher, aka Mr Versatile.
Oh and Matthew Upson, who once sported the worst beard seen in the Premiership.
And I assume that makes Steven Gerrard captain doesn't it? Another player who's had a difficult season. Hardly been inspired, but perhaps this could make the man.