Michael Essien hasn’t kicked a ball for us since suffering a hamstring tear against Apoel Nicosia on December 8th and yet again, as a result of international duty, it looks as if it could be a while before we see him pulling his Chelsea shirt back on.
Despite Essien being unable to play for us through injury, Ghana kicked up a bit of a fuss about him being made available for ACON, suggesting “Our doctors are in contact with Chelsea and we will wait for the advice of our doctors before making a decision. We will make that decision based on professional advice. We don’t know yet whether we will want Essien to come with us two weeks before the tournament starts. If the recommendations from our doctors say we should fly someone over, we will do that.”
As it turned out though, he didn’t return to training with us until 6th January and despite eventually joining up with Ghana after the weather caused a further delay, it seemed clear when he couldn’t start their 3-1 defeat to Ivory Coast on Friday that he probably shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.
Still, he was put on for 45 minutes anyway and today appears to have broke down in training. And following reports of him being taken to hospital in Angola, Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac has suggested “I don’t know the extent of the injury but we will find out later.”
Bearing in mind the last time Michael Essien was injured on international duty for Ghana in September 2008 a damaged cruciate ligament meant he didn’t play for us again until March 2009, this is not the sort of news we at Chelsea want to hear.
Blue is the colour
