Injury rules Drogba out of Chelsea’s Premiership start

August 10, 2008

A knee injury incurred in the beginning of the summer has ruled Chelsea striker and Ivory Coast national team captain Didier Drogba from the club’s Premiership start at August 17 against Portsmouth.

Due to this injury and Drogba’s own reluctance in staying at Stamford Bridge, he was not included in the preseason training squad that visited Asia and later played at Moscow.

Coach Luiz Filipe Scolari, the World Cup winning Brazil and later Portugal manager who has been busy making ‘observations’ on his players throughout this pre season campaign for getting the best possible combination from the squad, had hinted that Drogba may be able to play in the London Derby match scheduled to be against rivals Tottenham Hotspur on August 31.

Scholari further said that in no case he would like the player to hurry his comeback. He added that he was getting daily updates from the club’s doctors on the injury.

The coach has also revealed that presently the star striker is training under a special fitness instructor and would take some time to resume training with the rest of the squad, which now boasts of new additions including Brazilian born Portuguese attacking midfielder Deco.

With Drogba out due to injury and fellow striker Soloman Kalou set to go to Beijing for the Olympics, it leaves space for Nicholas Anelka besides Ukraine striker Andiry Shevchenko to lead the attack for games against Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic before the derby against the Spurs. Hopefully by then, Drogba will be back and raring to go!

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