ESSIEN OUT OF ANGOLA 2010

Posted: 2009-12-09 13:18

Michael Essien is out of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations after tearing his hamstring in Chelsea's Champions League game on Tuesday.

The engine room of the Ghana team scored the equaliser for the Stanford Bridge side in their 2-2 draw with Apoel Nicosia but limped off a few minutes later.

Initial tests say the recovery period will take six weeks. With the Nations Cup due to start on January 10 exactly four weeks from now, Ghana will have to do without their talisman.

It is a crushing blow to Ghana's ambitions but football authorities in Ghana are likely to insist on their own test.

Essien missed the 2006 Nations Cup in Egypt after another injury playing for Chelsea and was subsequently abused nationwide with many fans claiming he had chickened out of the competition.

Now after weeks declaring he wanted to help Ghana win the tournament, the Chelsea ace will have to watch from the sidelines again.

Expect a heated and skeptical reaction to the latest injury setback.

The setback is also likely to hasten Ghanaian efforts to finalise Kevin-Prince Boateng's nationality switch.

http://www.kickoff.com/static/news/article.php?id=12741

f**king hell, great..in a useless match aswell....

What Andy said...not good at all.

Edited December 9, 200916 yr by bmwdmb1

It had to happen eventually, you cant keep playing the important players in unimportant games.

Luckily for us it may not be too bad, 6 weeks out will probably mean he misses about 7 prem matches (west ham, birmingham and hull away - everton, pompey, fulham and sunderland at home) and the FA cup tie to Watford.

Lets just wait for the club to make an official comment on the subject first. but if it is 6 Weeks we will miss him more then anyone.

i seem to remember lampard was going to be out anywhere upto 3 months the day after he got injured. lets just take this waith a big pinch of salt until the facts become clear.

Why oh why couldn't it have been Ballack!?

sh*t!!!

sh*t!!!

He was bang on form aswell!

b*llocks!

is this confirmed info? Same thing happened to him two years ago I seem to recall.

It's a blow and anything over three weeks was always going to mean that was the end of him till feb.

Still, long term this could work in our favor. If he does miss the acn at least this means he will be at home and with the club rather than 3 weeks of ultra highly competitive matches.

In that respect at least he will come back fresh.

Still, on current form you have to worry about a midfield of lamps, ballack and mikel, seems very slow and pedestrian to me. Don't fancy them against evertons hassle merchants.

I don't blame carlo for this at all. It's just bad luck. The team selection was bang on last night as far as I was concerned. He wanted to win a game to start some momentum ahead of a long run of games and I think that was the right thing to do.

Edited December 9, 200916 yr by bjd

Oh boy, I really hope it isnt that bad. Feel for Ess and all Ghanians out there, as he probably will be pissed off he cant represent his country.

Agree with bjd, though. Carlo was right to start a stronger team and try and get us some momentium going into the weekend

Bring on the cow placenta.

I think it is a massive blow to lose Essien for that long as he has been the driving force of our midfield this season. a big loss for sure, lets hope that our squad can cope and we can use some of our younger players to plug any gaps in the coming weeks. As this football blog about Chelsea states, we have some great youngsters who need to shine and there could be some chances for them in the coming weeks.

betfair is a blog?

At least Malouda is in good form, and will get games regulary now.

Official website is saying 3-4 weeks. This could happen in any game, but that fact it happened in a match where it wasn't a MUST win, it kinda kicks you when you're down.

I heard it was more like 3 weeks, but it's awful for him and Ghana that he has to miss the African Cup of Nations.

I hope we don't have a similar collapse to the last time Essien got a serious injury...

If he's out for 3 weeks... will he miss the ACON?

ridiculous situation to get in ,carlo shouldnt have risked any of our main players last night, i was at the game and would happily of watched 11 youngsters get beaten if it meant the likes of essien didnt get injured.

If he's out for 3 weeks... will he miss the ACON?

Sadly i think he will make it.

As i hinted at earlier it bizarrely wouldve worked out far preferable for us if the injury had have been worse and he was out for 6-8 weeks meaning he wouldnt go to the ACN and get some good rest and recuperation.

It now looks like we are not going to have him again this year AND he will go to the ACN to play in a a batch of fiercely contested and important matches. He wont play for us again until February if Ghana do well.

Christ this is bad news, it really is. We need Ballack and Frank to step up to their top form pretty f*cking quickly. Gutted for Essien, I really am.

At least the Dippers lost tonight, although that doesn't seem like that much consolation given how sh*t they are at the moment.

Edited December 9, 200916 yr by Tim

we need to just wait and see how long he is out for. I didnt think it was to bad until i saw JT reaction

At least Malouda is in good form, and will get games regulary now.

:lol: Your joking mush!!

Devastating for Chelsea. A vital cog in the midfield, one that rarely has an off game. Hopefully the injury heals quickly.

ridiculous situation to get in ,carlo shouldnt have risked any of our main players last night, i was at the game and would happily of watched 11 youngsters get beaten if it meant the likes of essien didnt get injured.

I dont think we can blame Carlo Chelsea had to send a list of 25 players for the group stages before September so you can only use those players that were sent to UEFA