England will need some luck with World Cup draw

What do Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Harry Kewell have in common?

And stop laughing at the back all those who cringed at Kewell's lacklustre, if personally lucrative, displays for Liverpool.

Once you have quit tittering, you will learn that these three could combine to prevent England progressing from even the group stage of the World Cup. If the draw is unkind, Fabio Capello's seeds face high anxiety on the highveld.

Let's take each round as it comes and the first is riddled with risk.

England may be top of the pots, granted elite billing with Brazil and Spain, but the three other pots overflow with menace. Ronaldo's Portugal must negotiate an awkward second leg of their play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Real Madrid magician is sadly hors de combat, but his country have twice been England's nemesis in the twenty-first century.

Drogba's chance

Drogba would relish running into John Terry on African soil, while Kewell, for all his physical and mental frailties, has impressed on the road to Johannesburg. Only Brett Emerton and Tim Cahill scored more for the Socceroos.

More questions for England: what possible challenge is shared by those defensive experts Nemanja Vidic, Mark Schwarzer and Joseph Yobo? Or midfield enforcers such as Nigel de Jong, Wilson Palacios and Michael Essien? Or attacking talents such as Robin van Persie, Cahill and Roque Santa Cruz. Or serial finishers called Andrei Arshavin, Landon Donovan and Samuel Eto'o?

Each triumvirate could bar the way to the round of 16 if England fail to enjoy any pot luck. Fifa has yet to confirm its seedings, a system usually announced amid feverish (and ludicrous) speculation about conspiracy theories on the eve of the draw, taking place in Cape Town in 17 days.

Grading yardstick

A combination of precedent and grapevine chatter in Zurich suggests Fifa will form four pots of eight nations based around confederations, performances at the last two World Cups (with 2006 finishes worth double 2002 results) and the world rankings of December 2007, December 2008 and November 2009.

Quarter-finalists under Sven-Goran Eriksson in Japan and Germany, their ranking then rescued when Capello replaced the disastrous Steve McClaren, England will be seeded.

Looking at the likely draws, and acknowledging that the final six places will be decided only after a tense evening from Sudan to Slovenia today, it is possible to describe a nightmare draw for England of Holland (pot two), Australia (three) and Ivory Coast (four). This would surely be the Group of Death, of Kewell and Kuyt, of Poms and circumstance.

Another draw setting the alarm bells ringing would be Russia (pot two), US (three) and Nigeria (four)