Big names will be absent at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

Sometimes, being a great player individually does not mean that you are guaranteed success with all the teams you play for. Whilst many of their club teammates will be battling it out in Qatar, the following are just some of the players that already know they have the month off.

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Erling Haaland (Norway)
Haaland has made a stunning start to his Manchester City career, having already scored 14 goals in just ten games for his new club. There is already talk that he may break all existing scoring records this season.
However, because he plays for Norway, he will not be in Qatar, despite scoring five goals in qualifying. That is because Turkey pipped them to second place in their qualifying group, with the Netherlands getting the top spot.

Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
Salah has long been a star of the Premier League, whilst in his native Egypt and throughout North Africa and the Middle East, he enjoys a near mythical status.
He will be watching the World Cup on TV, though, like most of the rest of the world after his country was on the wrong end of a déjà vu moment. Beaten by Senegal on penalties in the final of the African Cup of Nations. The two sides met again to decide who would go to the World Cup. Egypt won by a single goal at home, but then Senegal avenged that with a similar score line in Dakar. And that meant another penalty shoot-out, with the same result.

Luis Diaz (Colombia)
Another Liverpool player to miss out is Colombian Luis Diaz. His country struggled in the qualifying campaign, winning just five of their group games, and ultimately missed out by a single point from reaching the intercontinental play-off against the UAE or Australia.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
The legendary Swedish striker had actually announced his international retirement but had a change of mind and decided to make himself available one last time. However, an injury he picked up playing for AC Milan meant that he was not fully fit when the UEFA qualification play-offs took place. Without him, they got to the final against Poland, but he did not start the match. He was finally introduced with ten minutes to go, but by then his team was two down and their chance had gone.

Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy)
One of the biggest stories in World Cup qualifying was how Italy went from being the European Champions to being out of World Cup in less than a year. Goalkeeper Donnarumma was named Man of the Tournament for his performances in the Euros, but he missed out this time after Italy missed out on automatic qualification after drawing their last two group games, and then suffered a shock play-off defeat to Northern Macedonia.

Jan Oblak (Slovenia)
Another goalkeeper to miss out is Atlético Madrid stopper Jan Oblak, one of the best in the world. Unfortunately, he has never played in a World Cup for Slovenia, a nation that has not made the tournament since 2010.
He still has time on his side though. He is only 29, so he conceivably may have two more World Cup campaigns left in him.