Ribery's injury, Nasri's omission and why you always bring your best players to the World Cup

Manuel Pellegrini knew all along.

"I can't believe Samir Nasri will not be going to World Cup,” the Manchester City manager said after France announced their 23-man squad for the tournament last month. “It will be an important mistake."

It sure seems like he was on to something.

Earlier today, French manager Didier Deschamps confirmed that Franck Ribery, the undisputed star and best player on the team, will miss the tournament as a result of a back injury that has ultimately proven more serious than the coach and others around the team were leading on.

It's devastating for Ribery, who has already said this will be his last World Cup. He deserved better. Life is unfair.

But then, sometimes the world makes sure we get exactly what we deserve. Right now, karmic justice is casting its powerful glare on Deschamps.

Devoid of their main attacking outlet, do France have the players capable of creating enough going forward to carry them on a deep run in Brazil?

They do. Sadly, he'll be watching from his couch — probably while looking at highlights of his brilliant League Cup-winning goal. Or his equalizer against Sunderland that kept City's title hopes alive. Or his goal against West Ham that clinched the Premier League crown.

Nasri's exclusion from the French squad was rightly questioned, as Deschamps' explanation — that he was taking the harmony of the team into account after the ignominious scenes in 2010 — caused many an eyebrow to be raised.

This isn't club football. There isn't the promise of next week's match giving you the opportunity to make up for a poor result today. Anything less than a win against Honduras on June 15, and France's adventure in Brazil will be over almost as quickly as it started.

If Deschamps thought team unity was going to be an issue, he should have considered that winning typically cures any problems in the dressing room. Losing, however, breeds conflict. To win, you need to have your best players. It's not a difficult equation to figure out.

Having Ribery made Nasri's omission less ominous. Not so anymore.

Maybe Antoine Griezmann, the 23-year-old Real Sociedad winger who is reportedly drawing heavy interest from Paris Saint-Germain, will assume the mantle left behind by the Bayern Munich star. Perhaps the everlasting legacy of this tournament will be how the French squad was a bastion of unity en route to capturing a historic World Cup victory on South American soil.

It could happen. In seven games, anything can happen.

But maybe, just maybe, we will look back and think what could have been if France had a supremely creative midfielder on the pitch to provide a moment of brilliance in a knockout game that they should have won, but didn't.