Michael Essien Has Surgery, Expected To Be Out For 6 Months

Chelsea have confirmed that Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien will be out for six months after damaging ligaments in his right knee during training last week. The extent of the damage was previously unknown thanks to the joint being too swollen to investigate, but a long-term injury was suspected. Rightly so, as it turns out - the Bison has suffered from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament as well as suffering meniscus damage, and he went under the knife today to fix some of the damage (according to the Blues, it went well).

The club is saying that Essien could be out for 'up to six months' but considering the previous state of his knees it would come as no surprise if the recovery process took longer. An ACL rupture (i.e. partial tear) with meniscus damage is a little more severe than the partial tear scenario I envisioned in a previous post, and I'm sticking to my guns on the rammifications - the Blues now find their transfer flexibility severely limited, but the on-field product won't suffer to a huge degree, assuming they do bring in a replacement for him this summer.

That's the clinical, non-emotional way of looking at it, but this is a blog written by a Chelsea fan rather than a journalistic outlet, and I have to say that I'm devastated that Essien's this badly hurt. I knew that there was no way that this wouldn't be a long-term issue when the swelling was so bad that it'd take days before his knee could be scanned, but man, I was hoping.

Essien is one of my very favourite players, and it's been painful to see him play like a shadow of himself as the injuries have been piling up. I can only hope that his recovery goes speedily, but not so fast that he doesn't have time to recover completely. Get well soon, Michael. You'll be sorely missed.

Much love,

-We Ain't Got No History