Ferreira out for season,Carvalho and Essien return
By dixon9
March 6 2009
Chelsea defender Paulo Ferreira suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury yesterday which will put him out for the rest of the season. The good news is that after participating in reserves fixture midweek, both Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Essien are both named in the squad for tomorrows FA Cup match away to Coventry City.
The newsflash on Ferreira has just appeared on the official website and will leave Chelsea with limited options on the left-.back position.
Despite being signed as a right-back, the Portuguese international can also cover for Ashley Cole on the left. It remains to be seen if reserve youth Ryan Bertrand will now slot in as 2nd choice left-back although given that there is no transfer window I don’t see how there is any other choice.
The return of key players Carvalho and Essien has come as a bit of a surprise as reports suggested that both players weren’t quite ready.Carvalho treaded rather gingerly during the midweek reserve match at Villa Park and Essien, whilst coming through the 90 mins reasonably well, still appeared less than 100%.
Carvalho has also criticised his original rehabilitation programme under the recent Scolari regime but has revealed that his recovery progress has accelerated more recently:
"This time we did things properly,"
"My rehab was much better than the previous one when we did some mistakes.
"I came back a little too early and in the training I broke down, so after that it takes twice the time it should.
"This time I am feeling stronger and the muscle is okay so next week I will start to play for the first team."
The return of such important players at this crucial part of the season is a tremendous boost indeed although I suspect that either will play a limited part in tomorrows FA Cup match with perhaps more of an eye on Tuesday’s Champions League clash in Turin against Juventus.