Whatever exotic ailment new kid on the block André Schürrle picked up during Chelsea's tour of Asia this summer is sure proving to be a doozy.
It's been four weeks since he was withheld from the friendly exhibition versus BNI Indonesia All-Stars (and subsequent training sessions) and while he did play a few dozen minutes in the USA (and scored a cracking goal), it was fairly clear that he wasn't operating at full fitness.
So when the German media asked, he played down his chances of starting this weekend's opener versus the declawed Tigers of Hull (City).
"The full 90 minutes will be hard for me right now."
-André Schürrle; source: kicker via ESPN
Fortunately, the 22-year-old plays at Chelsea's deepest position, so unlike last year, we won't have to distract Marko Marin from whatever epic quest he may on over in Kokiri Forest.
Speaking of Marko, here's ESPN's lovely headline for the story in which they carried Schürrle's quotes:
Note ESPN's use of single quotation marks, indicating a direct quote. If you can actually find where Schürrle said anything like that, you surely win some sort of prize.