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Kolo Toure confident Ivory Coast can succeed at World Cup 2010 without Chelsea star Didier Drogba
Elephants can still make a good show in South Africa...
By Zack Wilson
Drogba broke a bone in his forearm in the run-up to the tournament and the extent of his likely involvement is still to be determined. But it looks almost certain that he will miss the Elephants' opener against Portugal on Tuesday.
However, Toure insists that there are still plenty of players in Sven-Goran Eriksson's side who can bring the team success in South Africa.
"During the first few days, it was really hard to take because Didier is our captain and best player, after all," Toure told FIFA.com.
"He's a top goalscorer who has always stood up to be counted when we have found ourselves with our backs against the wall.
"But there are 23 players here representing the Ivory Coast and it is all those players together who will win us matches, not Didier Drogba on his own.
"We will deal with whatever comes our way. What counts now is that everyone fights for each other, side by side."
Toure also believes that Ivory Coast possess another crucial advantage in the shape of their coach.
"He [Eriksson] has put an added emphasis on playing as a team and not just as a collection of individuals," the defender explained.
"He has managed to change the mindset of the team and of each player. We have always had good players, but have never been able to properly work together as an effective unit, defending and attacking as one.
"That's what we have been working on, and we hope that it will bear fruit, starting with our first match versus Portugal."
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"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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