Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel has ruled himself out of the up coming World Cup finals having failed to fully recover from a knee injury. As part of the treatment he had the knee operated on and even managed to take part in a full training session with his Nigerian team mates.

He decided to withdraw from the squad rather than take part and cost Nigeria a fit player should he drop out during the tournament. He has been replaced in the squad by Brown Ideye the uncapped Sochaux midfielder.

Nigeria play their last warm up game later today against North Korea in Johannesburg. They face South Korea in their first group game on Saturday 12th June.

Mikel is one of many Chelsea double winners who will not be making an appearance in the World Cup this year. Germany’s Michael Ballack is out following a challenge in the FA cup final with Boateng. Drogba has had surgery and may miss out and Essien will also miss out he was injured playing for his country during the African Cup of Nations in January and has failed to recover in time to participate in the World Cup.