Neymar, Pogba, Coutinho? Players Who Could Be Suspended From World Cup Semifinals

After a two-day minibreak, the World Cup is back as four quarterfinal matches will take place from Friday to Saturday. However, multiple players could stand a chance of missing out on a potential semifinal appearance with another yellow card.

As yellow cards are only wiped out after the quarterfinal stage, it means any player already booked before this stage will miss out on their team's next game should they progress.

That could be huge for the current World Cup favorites in Brazil, who will already be without the suspended Casemiro for their Friday game against Belgium. Arguably their two best players in Neymar and Philippe Coutinho will miss a potential meeting with the winners of France or Uruguay if they receive another yellow card.

Left back Filipe Luis is another who could miss the semifinal with a booking, though Real Madrid's Marcelo should return to the starting eleven.

Belgium could play in the semifinals without some key players as well with five players at risk of being suspended, three of them being starters in the form of Kevin De Bruyne, Thomas Meunier and Jan Vertonghen. The other two players carrying a booking are Leander Dendoncker and Youri Tielemans.

As for France, they have the likes of Paul Pogba, Olivier Giroud, Benjamin Pavard and Corentin Tolisso all on bookings, with the first three players more than likely to start in Friday's quarterfinal against Uruguay. However, Tolisso may start as well as Blaise Matuidi is suspended for the quarterfinal.

Their South American opponents, though, benefit the most from the quarterfinalists as they only have one player in danger of missing out on the semifinals in Juventus midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur.

As for Saturday's quarterfinals, England have four players on a booking, including three starters in captain Jordan Henderson, Jesse Lingard and Kyle Walker. Midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek is the other Englishman on a yellow card.

Their opponents in Sweden meanwhile, have just two players on a booking in Viktor Claesson and Albin Ekdal but will have Mikael Lustig suspended for the England game.

Finally, the game between Russia and Croatia could see the most players missing out on a potential semifinal appearance as both teams have a combined 13 players on a yellow card.

For Croatia, the likes of Mario Mandzukic, Ivan Rakitic, Sime Vrsaljko and Ante Rebic could all be suspended for the last four. Substitutes in Marcelo Brozovic, Vedran Corluka, Tin Jedvaj and Marko Pjaca are also on a booking.

As for the hosts in Russia, they have five players on a booking, the most notable ones being arguably their best player in the tournament in Aleksandr Golovin while two other starters in Ilya Kutepov and Roman Zobnin are also at risk.

Fyodor Smolov, who started the tournament as Russia's leading man up front, is also on a booking along with Yury Gazinsky.

It must be noted that any player without a booking who receives a red card in the quarterfinals will also miss out on the semifinal stage.