Blackpool visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon. The match will mark the third successive Frank Lampard has missed because of injury.
Stand-up guy.
Says the Chelseafc.com, "The vice-captain is yet to recover fully from surgery on his groin and will continue to train individually over the weekend to strengthen muscle in that region."
When said injury forced Lampard out of the England set-up for its first two Euro 2012 qualifiers, many questioned the timing of the surgery. Several went as far as to suggest it was a farce. Super Frank simply did not want to play for his country, they said.
The CO tackled that argument in a fairly direct opinion piece, dated 5 September. A lot of readers attacked my view of the situation. Actually, most were certain that Lampard was feigning the groin problem - despite no one, not a one, having any concrete evidence of such tomfoolery.
Well, it's been almost three weeks and Frank has yet to return for the club. So, I ask those who questioned the extent of the injury: What do you think now?