Ramires reinstated by Brazil

If you haven't been following the shenanigans with Ramires and the Brazil team of late, here's some backstory: Chelsea's favourite midfield dasher-abouter has recently found himself on the outside looking in when it comes to duty with the national team -- and the reasons have had essentially nothing to do with football. Earlier in the year, Ramires missed a game with the Selecao due to injury, and the Brazil hierarchy decided that that meant he wasn't committed enough to the cause and needed to be punished, refusing to call him up for friendlies or the Confederations Cup.

On one hand, that was good for Chelsea, since the fewer players we have getting called up for international duty the more fit the team will be. On the other, players really care about this sort of thing, and being excluded from Brazil when the country's about to host a World Cup would presumably have been a pretty devastating blow for Ramires. The club did some intervening earlier in the summer, however, making the very odd step of releasing a statement about his injury four months after it actually happened just to prove that he was actually hurt.

Anyway, it appears to have worked:

Ramires and Maicon recalled by Luiz Felipe Scolari for #Brazil friendlies against Australia and Portugal in September.

— Jack Lang (@snap_kaka_pop) August 21, 2013

I like to imagine Ramires' face splitting into an enormous grin when he got the call. Happy Ramires is a joy.