Essien UPDATE, Pre-Season and TV Schedule
UP THE CHELS
By Since66
July 11 2011
So the bad news about Michael Essien has come true. Essien has had an operation on his right knee to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus, Chelsea announced today. It is expected that Essien's full recovery will take up to six months, although I fear he won't be the same player as he was during 2009 because he certainly wasn't during 2010.
Obviously, we all wish him well for a speedy recovery and new coach AvB broke off from training to say, "Everyone at Chelsea wishes Michael well for his recovery.
"His team-mates and all the staff and I look forward to helping him return to playing as soon as possible."
The first pre-season game kicks-off on Saturday as the squad travel to Fratton Park to play Portsmouth, kick-off 3pm.
THERE WILL BE LIVE UPDATES ON THE BOARD and the game is being shown LIVE on Chelsea TV.
Chelsea then travel to the Far East where they will play games against an Malaysia XI (21st July), Thailand All-Stars (24th July), Kitchee (27th July), Aston Villa/Blackburn (30th July) and then returning to Scotland to play Rangers (6th August).
SKY/ESPN have got their claws into Chelsea, announcing EIGHT games where the Blues will be live on TV.
The schedule is as follows:
Stoke City (a) Sunday 14th August @1.30pm Sky Sports
WBA (h) Saturday 20th August @5.30pm ESPN
Man Utd (a) Sunday 18th September @4.00pm Sky Sports
Bolton (a) Sunday 2nd October @1.30pm Sky Sports
Everton (h) Saturday 15th October @5.30pm ESPN
QPR (a) Sunday 23rd October @4pm Sky Sports
Arsenal (h) Saturday 29th October @12.45pm Sky Sports
Liverpool (h) Sunday 20th November @4.00pm Sky Sports (subject to Champions League group stage draw).
UP THE CHELS
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I hate to say it, but this time around Essien will need extensive treatment and rest and his knee must be 100% before they let him even kick a beach ball....to the contrary he could well be finished.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.