It’s been six weeks since Sergio Aguero had his latest five-second angry and launched himself full bore at David Luiz’s knees in the dying moments of Chelsea’s 3-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium. Luiz rode the brunt of the challenge, but his standing leg wasn’t quite as lucky. It looked like a painful, awkward fall and he was receiving treatment on his right knee all throughout the subsequent fracas.
David Luiz has fortunately not missed any game-time in the league since, but he’s been playing with a heavily wrapped knee and his mobility and strength have been, at times, visibly affected. As he revealed ahead of Saturday’s game, he’s been limited in training as well, especially when it comes to free kicks (which, given the wonderful routine we saw against Leicester City, maybe is not such a bad thing?).
“I am not training so much at the moment because I am not in the best moment with my knees, and I know these kind of things in football, the free-kicks, the corners, it is the repetition that makes you better. When you can train more and more and more, you get the fine detail – how you touch the ball, the power, how you stop the feet. At the moment I cannot train too much but in the future I hope I can help Chelsea with some free-kicks.”
-David Luiz; source: Chelsea FC
Earlier in the week, David posted a video of himself training and doing a few agility drills without any wrapping on his knee, and I had hoped that meant that he was finally fully recovered. That proved not to be the case just yet. Thanks, Sergio Aguero!
(Another piece of the Nathan Aké recall puzzle thus falls into place, by the way.)