And my fears continue to heighten. Anyone else beginning to endure that sinking feeling with regard to one Michael Essien?
The Bison, today, has been ruled out for World Cup South Africa in its entirety. The Ghanaian has been out since early January, attempting to recover from a medial ligament knee injury.
According to a bulletin on the official website of the Ghana FA: "An evaluation by a combined team of medical experts from the Ghana Football Association and Chelsea Football Club revealed that Essien will not make full recovery until the end of July."
How many times have we heard that since the injury? Full recovery by this date, that date. He was supposed to be back for the Stoke City match at the end of the season, remember? The fact is that this injury is obviously much worse than anyone would have anticipated. Recovery for such an injury is normally 3-8 weeks, no more than 12 at the most - Andrew Bynum, of the Los Angeles Lakers, tore his MCL in February and, despite dealing with significant pain and potential surgery in his future, returned to the Lakers' fold in early May. For Essien, it's now been nearly five months.
I hate to say this, but could we have a potentially career damager here?
Chelsea and Ghana seem to be in agreement that our Bison will be fit for the start of our Premier League title defense. Anyone confident in that assessment? I hope the man is back. When healthy, there is no more dynamic midfielder in the world than Michael Essien.
Get well soon Mike.