The final stages of European qualifying for next year's championship kick off on Saturday with the prospect that the likes of Ronaldo, Deco, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Franck Ribery and Nicolas Anelka may not make it to South Africa.
The specter of failure also hangs over Russia's Andrei Arshavin and Ukraine's Andriy Shevchenko.
In the first legs of the playoffs, Portugal hosts a Bosnia-Herzegovina side trying to reach its first World Cup while Slovenia is chasing its second appearance when it takes on Russia.
Greece hosts 2006 World Cup quarterfinalist Ukraine, while 1998 world champion and 2006 runner-up France visits Ireland, which has not made it to a major championship since the 2002 World Cup.
The second legs take place Wednesday and then the identities of the 13 European nations heading for the Dec. 4 World Cup draw will be known.
The eight teams have wound up in the lottery of the playoffs by finishing second in their qualifying groups. Already going through are the nine group winners - Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, England, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark and Serbia.
"It's hugely frustrating not being able to help Portugal, even more so now that we have such a decisive game against Bosnia," said Ronaldo, who was injured playing for Real Madrid in September and aggravated the problem in a World Cup qualifying game for Portugal against Hungary.
"I'm sure that if we can maintain the spirit we've shown, as well as our unity, humility and mutual support, our quality will see us through."
Facing a Bosnia side which finished 11 points behind Spain in qualifying, coach Carlos Queiroz has plenty of other talent to choose from.
But he has been unable to get his team to play with any consistency and has been hit by the loss of Ronaldo, the world's most expensive star and world player of the year who has scored freely for Manchester United and Real Madrid over the past three seasons.
"This game looks like the biggest game of our lives," Queiroz said. "Our presence at the World Cup depends on it, but it's crucial that our players stay calm enough to look at it as just another big game. We have to take advantage of our experience and our maturity."
The same applies to France.
Coach Raymond Domenech has been on the brink of dismissal since his team's poor performance at the 2008 Euros and admits that the pressure currently on his team is self inflicted.
"The pressure - well, it's internal," Domenech said. "If the players don't have it inside them, which is what I told them at the outset, it means we're cheating ourselves, that we've got nothing to do here.
"There are matches which don't need external pressure. It's here. The players want to go to the World Cup. If they are not motivated, prepared and don't have the desire to put themselves in the right conditions. Well, I'm sorry, there's nothing more to add. They are ready. It's not worth adding an excess of pressure."
The French go to Dublin's Croke Park where some 80,000 Ireland fans will be roaring on players who can rise to the occasion or simply fall apart.
If players such as goalkeeper Shay Given and striker Robbie Keane are on form, an Ireland team coached by experienced Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni can surprise the French and put even more pressure on Domenech in the second leg at the Stade de France next Wednesday.
After failing to qualify for the last World Cup, Russia has improved under Dutch coach Guus Hiddink and should be too strong for Slovenia, especially in the first leg in Moscow.
Hiddink has the Russians playing with both method and style with Arshavin opening up defenses and creating chances with his runs and layoffs.
Slovenia lost all three games on its World Cup debut in 2002 but has made it to the playoffs from a comparatively easy group. It will look for goals from Cologne striker Milivoje Novakovic, who has netted five times in qualifying games.
Greece bids to make it to the World Cup for only the second time. The team qualified in 1994 but did not score or collect a single point in the United States.
But its achievement under German coach Otto Rehhagel, who has been in charge since August 2001 and guided the team to an astonishing triumph at the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, means that it fears no opponents and can well make it to South Africa by eliminating Ukraine.
Bayer Leverkusen striker Theofanis Gekas goes into Saturday's game in Athens as the top scorer in European qualifying games with 10 goals, four of them in a come-from-behind 5-2 victory over Latvia.
Ukraine will look to the experience of Shevchenko, who scored six goals in qualifying. But he has turned 33 and is back with Dynamo Kiev after failing at Chelsea and on his return to AC Milan.
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