These two squads are not alone. Italian discontent with Marcello Lippi is simmering while the Ivory Coast and Cameroon camps, which feature plenty of Premier League players, are understood to be riddled with cliques too.

It is deeply, deeply depressing and reflects a wider trend that is threatening the sanctity of the World Cup. Put simply, many of the players that feel they have proved themselves at Champions League level don't feel like they need the pressure or the inconvenience of international football anymore.

It would be a massive generalisation to say that all of England and France's players are guilty of undermining the World Cup's fine heritage but too many Premier League stars live a charmed life - indulged at every turn and resistent to stepping out of their comfort zone. Clubs go out of their way to protect them, flying off the handle when the press have the temerity to criticise them and keeping the paying public at arms length when things go wrong.

One of the genuine delights of last season was seeing the Newcastle United squad purged of some of the egos that, I believe, were corrosive during the relegation season. They didn't just have a blinder on the field, they were great off it too: honest in interviews, happy to give the fans the time of day and generally recognising what a privileged position they inhabited. That, unfortunately, is not true of all Premier League players.

The likes of John Terry and Nicolas Anelka have got used to wielding huge influence in the Chelsea dressing room and now, being asked to work for managers who do things differently, they are not prepared to bend. We know best, their attitude seems to be, and if you don't like it then we'll take matters into our own hands.

It is not an encouraging trend for the international game, already suffering for the rise of the Champions League and the primacy of the club game. Jamie Carragher let the cat out of the bag a couple of years ago when he said missing a penalty for England wasn't as important as losing a big European game for Liverpool. It wasn't a lack of pride in playing for his country, just a general reflection on the fact that club football is so much more important nowadays.

I think we accepted a while ago that club football was gaining primacy but the World Cup was supposed to be different. It was the event that brought the globe together, the footballing pinnacle that awakened new generations to the beauty of our game. In the wake of the weekend's events, that now looks like sentimental clap trap.

I suppose for the good of the game, it would be best if England follow France out of the tournament this week. Let the likes of New Zealand, Slovenia and Ghana, genuinely revelling in the World Cup experience, take centre stage and allow the pampered Premier League players to withdraw to a domestic game that rarely challenges them or puts them out of the comfort zone.

But I just can't wish ill on any team wearing the Three Lions. England is important to the English game - it means something to those of us who follow football outside the 'big four' and I know what a huge, huge fillip it would be for the nation as a whole if we progressed. I can't give up on them because England success is such a fantastic collective feeling, and a second successive World Cup failure would be catastrophic for the image of the sport we all love.

We're no more than 90 minutes away from that catastrophe now, and what happened yesterday only deepened the mystery of just what is going on in Rustenburg. Something is not right but decoding the messages coming out of the camp is nearly impossible.
John Terry's Sunday press conference looked refreshingly open when I first saw it, a frank admission of the failings that have undermined the campaign and a positive message to move forward.

But when I first read his quotes and saw him speaking, I assumed he had the blessing of the management and the support of his team-mates before speaking. Surely a player as discredited as he is by recent events would not try and assume the high ground or tell others what to do.

How wrong I was. According to well sourced and well-informed reports this morning the opposite was true, and Terry was not - as he asserted - speaking for the players. He was speaking for himself and merely deepening the tensions in a squad riven by dissent and in-fighting.

What an almighty mess. What an incredible lack of self-awareness on Terry's part. What peril England's World Cup campaign is obviously in.

Fabio Capello isn't blameless in all of this. The art of management surely includes compromise, and if he was so clever then surely he would realise what he is doing is not working. He might not like having to dilute his authoritarian style for these pampered players but what is more important: doing it his way or doing it a way that will actually yield results?

In my opinion, England's players and management would be well served by getting a bit of perspective on their situation. I was at a pre-World Cup Wembley friendly against Mexico that was billed as Tickets For Heroes, with serving soldiers given free tickets and paraded before the game to reflect the nation's gratitude for people genuinely putting life and limb on the line for their country.

Here's a suggestion to alleviate the 'boredom' of their training regime. Perhaps the FA could fly someone who had done a stint in Afghanistan or Iraq out to talk to the players about what hardship and suffering really is, and the squad would finally realise that the fear and the pressure that is clearly restricting them is relative.