Marco van Ginkel demonstrates your next fun core-strengthening exercise

Marco van Ginkel's everywhere lately (except out on the pitch because ACL injuries are doodyheads).  After running from, getting caught by, and successfully blowing his nose in the general direction of the Miami po-po, he's now back at Chelsea, putting in the hard hours in rehab.  No, not the celebrity-type rehab.  Rehab rehab.  For his knee.

Thanks to his Instagram account, we can even catch a glimpse of just how much fun recovery can be:

So that's pretty impressive.  I tried that on the Swiss ball that just so happens to reside in my guest bedroom, and I can tell you that's not easy at all after about four reps.

Unfortunately, Marco's video cuts out before we get to the interesting part of seeing his right knee in action.  And it is the right knee that interests us the most, as it is the one that derailed the young man's entire season when it decided to buckle on him in all the wrong ways possible back in September.

While a welcome side effect of that circumstance has been the return of Nemanja Matic to the club, and even though we have high-profile success stories like Adrian Peterson to hold up as contrarian examples, major ACL injuries still fill me with dread for any player's short-term and long-term prospects.  But maybe I'm just expecting the worst after the insanity of the last few days.

As it stands, Van Ginkel seems to be making positive progress in his recovery.  He's expected back in action sometime around April, or late March at the earliest.