There’s been plenty of fuss made about Yossi Benayoun’s injury which sees the midfielder miss the next six months out with an Achilles injury. Well, maybe not the injury as much as the diagnosis of it really.
The press, backed up by opposition and even some of our supporters have used it as a stick to beat both the player and the club with, suggesting Benayoun had ‘laid into’ the club for failing to realise the extent of the injury but to be fair to Yossi, all he’s said is he’s surprised it was missed given the amount of tests he had.
Following the news of his lay-off, Benayoun said “The truth is that this entire situation is very strange. Chelsea were sure it was something small. They have compared all the images and they do not understand how they missed it. I had three MRIs and three ultrasounds and they all said there was no problem, and it was just a small tear. I came to Israel ready to play and they told me it was a big tear. They said it is unusual to have such a big tear and not be in terrible pain. Even now I am not in pain but I cannot take one step by myself until I undergo surgery.”
So clearly, he’s a bit confused by it all but I’d hardly say he’s slating the clubs medics even if he would have a point in doing so. And I’m not going to slag them off here either because I have no idea at all how the tear might or might not show itself on the various scans he had – but somehow or another, the initial diagnosis at Chelsea wasn’t right – and not for the first time.
I have to confess I’m not as up on news of our youths as I could be but according to VitalChelsea, Austrian, and Chelsea youth team striker Phlipp Prosenik has also been misdiagnosed recently after picking up what initially appeared an innocuous knock.
The youngster had a knee problem before we signed him anyway and after the knock last month was told he’d sprained the medial collateral ligament in his knee which would keep him out for a few weeks. Unfortunately though, after a period of ten days during which he was treated for that injury, it turned out he had extensive cartilage damage originating from his old meniscus problem and his lay-off would, like Benayoun, actually be for six months.
And none of this sounds very good from Chelsea’s point of view really. I mean, we’re a Premier League club and yet in terms of specialised medical staff, I’ve known junior doctors still wet behind the ears with more accuracy. Surely they have someone qualified to read results of the various scans? And if that’s the case, why aren’t they doing it a bit better than they seem to be? Yes, there’s always an element of human error – but consistent human error surely lays people open to questions around competency?
It’s not as if the medical staff haven’t been looked at because back in March, after a string of long-term injuries to first teamers like Essien, Bosingwa and Cole, they were apparently being ‘studied’. Joe Cole himself even hinted he might not have been out quite so long if he’d been looked after a little better medically in the first place. And even as far back as 2006, Michael Ballack accused Chelsea’s medical department of failing to diagnose a potentially career threatening injury that eventually saw him face the wrath of Jose Mourinho when he underwent an ankle operation in Germany.
So these questions around Chelsea’s medical staff certainly aren’t new they’re just being asked a bit louder and it’s probably time someone inside the club heard them!
