COMMENTARY : Injuries and Suspensions Rob Tournament of Some Luster

After helping their teams reach the quarterfinals, some key players will be missing this weekend in the World Cup.

Some stars are beyond repair because of injuries. Seven others are benched because of yellow and red cards, taking the gleam from some glamorous games that were expected to be true matchups on equal terms.

The first two rounds took a heavy toll.

Many coaches have been forced to look for patchwork solutions, making further upsets likely.

“The suspensions create a lot of problems for coaches and could lower the quality of the quarterfinals,” Cameroon Coach Valery Nepomnyashchy said. “It’s a great problem because, by the second round, coaches have settled on their best team, and to revise it is difficult.”

Rudi Voeller, West Germany’s star striker, will miss Sunday’s game against Czechoslovakia because of a suspension after his controversial ejection against The Netherlands.

“I’m a sad man,” Voeller said, adding that his absence would detract from the game. “If I’m well and not in trouble, the best German attacker is me. There are no rivals to confront me.”

Italy will be without Nicola Berti, a strong midfielder, when it meets Ireland on Saturday.

Suspensions have hit hard at Sunday’s match between England and Cameroon. Cameroon has lost four starters because of yellow cards--and suspensions--and will be forced to use an improvised defense.

Injuries also have hurt teams.

England will be missing captain Bryan Robson, the epitome of the team’s rugged, basic play. He returned home with a foot injury.

Defending champion Argentina lost its top goalkeeper, Nery Pumpido, with a broken leg. The great Diego Maradona has been mostly ineffective, troubled with a bad ankle, which he says won’t be near 100% when the Argentines meet Yugoslavia on Saturday.

Before the tournament, all coaches knew that some changes would be necessary. Making the right replacements can demonstrate a coach’s cunning and the depth of his team.

Italian Coach Azeglio Vicini has missed standouts Carlo Ancelotti and GianLuca Vialli, but it has hardly affected the team’s clockwork combination play. Substitutes like Salvatore Schillaci and Roberto Baggio became national heroes almost overnight.

Berti will be replaced by Roberto Donadoni, a midfielder who would make almost any national team.

But not everyone can count on such talent and experience. Cameroon is likely to suffer worst. The suspensions led Nepomnyashchy to harshly criticize the refereeing at the World Cup.

“It’s clear that three of the yellow cards for our players (against Colombia) were wrong,” he said. Cameroon also had two players sent off in its opening 1-0 upset of Argentina.

Even some star players who will be starting will have to be cautious.

Lothar Matthaeus, West Germany’s star midfielder, received a yellow card in the second-round victory over The Netherlands. A second carries an automatic one-game suspension.

A missing Matthaeus would rob the World Cup of one of its top attractions, bringing back memories of 1966.

In the World Cup in England, Brazil’s Pele was expected to be the star of the tournament. But he was so viciously tackled in the first round that he limped off injured before the quarterfinals.

And Brazil went quietly with him.