Michael Essien Ruled out of World Cup 2010

Ghana midfielder Michael Essien is going to miss the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa as the Chelsea star would not be able to get over the knee injury before July. Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac has named the 27-year-old midfielder in the 23-man final Ghana squad for the World Cup.

A joint evaluation of the midfielder’s recovery conducted by the medical staffs of Ghana Football Association and Chelsea has revealed that the player would not be able to take part in the World Cup. The evaluation has also found out that Essien’s future would be in jeopardy if he is taken to South Africa.

Michael Essien picked up the injury when he was in Angola with Ghana to participate in the African Cup of Nations 2010. The midfielder thus missed the whole second half of the Premier League season.

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Michael Essien Suffers a knee injury: Bad News for Chelsea

Michael Essien is now with Ghana national football team in Angola for the 2010 African Cup of Nations football tournament. Unfortunately, in practice session, he suffered a knee injury that looked bad. It has been reported that he may be out of action for more than month. Percy Annan is the team doctor of Ghana national football team and he has stated that the injury would keep him out of action for the rest of African Cup of nation. This is surely bad news for Michael Essien and his club Chlesea.

Essien is an influential midfielder for the club and Chelsea did not have him in some of the matches in December 2009 when he was suffering from injury.

A statement on Chelsea Website stated, "Chelsea Football Club is aware of the injury to Michael Essien and has been in contact with the Ghanaian national team.

We will fully assess the injury on Michael's return to us later this week. Until then we are unable to comment further."

The player is supposed to come t London so that the doctors of the club can take a closer look at the injury. 

Michael Essien Finally Impressed Carlo Ancelotti

Chelsea’s Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien did not have a very good last season as he missed almost half of the season through injury. He did not have a very good start to the season and Chelsea’s new manager Carlo Ancelotti initially preferred John Obi Mike over Essien and once said that the Nigerian had all the abilities to be the regular playmaker of his side.

However, the recent strong performance from Michael Essien seems to have impressed the Italian manager. In the win over Liverpool, Essien was awesome and did not let Gerrard become a threat for Chelsea defense. His performance against Tottenham Hotspur and APOEL Nicosia in Europe also proved once again that Essien deserves the regular spot in Chelsea line up.

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Emmanuel Adebayor Wins African Footballer of the Year Award

(This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009)

Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor has won the African Footballer of the Year award for his excellent performance in 2008 both for his club Arsenal and his country. Adebayor scored 30 goals in all competitions for the English club and has led Togo to the Africa Cup of Nations 2008 and the final round qualifying round of 2010 world cup football. He defeated Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika and Chelsea’s Ghanaian star Michael Essien in a highly competitive race to become the best footballer in Africa.

Emmanuel Adebayor has become the first player from Togo to win this title. Naturally, he is very happy to win the award. Though he got the support of fellow star African players like Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o, there are some others who think that the award should have gone to star Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika who was instrumental behind Egypt’s triumph in 2008 African Cup of Nations as he scored the winning goal in the final. Even in club level, he helped Al Ahly to win the domestic league as well as the African Champions League. However, there is no doubt that Emmanuel Adebayor was one of the best performers in world football last year.

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