Marco van Ginkel is running again!

Chelsea’s constant injuries, including to several key players, have been a defining theme so far this season, but for Marco van Ginkel, they’ve been the defining theme of his entire Chelsea career.

Since suffering an ACL tear less than two months after joining from Vitesse Arnhem in 2013, Van Ginkel has been dealing with an endless list of knee injuries, surgeries, and rehabilitations. He did manage to squeeze in a couple loans, and even two Eredivisie titles with PSV during those (one as captain, even!), but he’s still played in fewer matches in the last six years (107), than in the first three years of his career (111). He hasn’t kicked a football competitively since the end of the 2017-18 season, thanks to another ACL injury, and then another series of setbacks.

But here’s something that should bring you a glimmer of hope in this dreary, cruel world of ours. Marco van Ginkel. Age 26. Running. On an (anti-gravity) treadmill!

Yes, there’s brief video, too, thanks to Wulfert Cornelius’s own Instagram.

There’s no proposed or even rumored timeline for Van Ginkel’s recovery, but it’s lovely to see him making progress, and getting rewarded for his never-say-die spirit. His Chelsea contract technically expires at the end of the season, but it’s likely to be extended before then, as we often do in such cases.