Drogba And Lampard Out, Benayoun To Undergo Surgery
Chelsea suffer yet another injury blow as the Blues hit man Didier Drogba has been ruled out of the Aston Villa clash because of a fever. This weekend’s fixture was crucial and with the already existing injuries, Ancelotti was depending on Drogba to secure
all three points. However, he is out along with Yossi Benayoun, Frank Lampard, Alex, Daniel Sturridge and Salomon Kalou.
Yossi Benayoun is out with Achilles rupture, which the former Liverpool player claims occurred because of the Chelsea medical staff’s negligence. An official statement released by the club however, claimed that the Israeli midfielder sustained the injury
during international duty. Frank Lampard is also unavailable, having failed to recover from his groin injury.
Benayoun will travel to Finland for an operation, which is scheduled for Monday. The operation will sideline him for the next six months which means the Israeli will be absent for most of this season. Carlo Ancelotti insisted that the scans showed no serious
damage when the Chelsea medical team examined it, he reiterated that Benayoun had left England perfectly fine but what happened afterwards, he did not know.
He said, “We are sure that, when he left England, he did not have a tear in his tendon. We are sure of this. He had a calf problem. The MRI showed this problem, but the tendon was clear. He had a problem at the start of the season with inflammation on his
tendon, had treatment and came back to play for us and the national team. I don't know what happened afterwards. Now he has to have surgery and we're disappointed because we've lost a very good player. He was improving in the last game, but now this is the
situation.”
Brazilian defender Alex, strikers Sturridge and Kalou are also out, it is not certain when they will return to action. Some good news is that captain John Terry has been declared fit and will most likely start against Villa today, having their captain back
will be a big boost for Ancelotti’s side. Terry had a back injury because of which he England international had to withdraw from the 2012 Euro qualifier fixture against Montenegro.
Despite the many missing players, Ancelotti refused to accept suggestions that he was facing a crisis in the Chelsea treatment room. But the Italian confirmed reports that Frank Lampard and Drogba would miss the away game at Villa Park. Ancelotti will now
have to make do with six important players, but he is aware that the rest of the Chelsea squad possess quality and will not disappoint in the decisive away fixture.
He said, “Frank is not available, Drogba is not available, Sturridge, Kalou, Alex, Benayoun are not available. Frank is getting better, but he needs maybe two weeks to be 100% fit. He had a problem on his adductor and we have to pay attention to that. He
is working individually but he needs to have another two weeks. It's getting better… Drogba had a fever this week, all week, and wasn't able to train. He started training on Friday, but he's not fit. He took antibiotics in the last few days, and will need
to train next week.”
Ancelotti will remember the 2-1 loss at Villa Park last season all too well, and with the depleted squad he will have all the more reason to motivate his side to maintain their lead at the top of the League. Ancelotti admitted that the Villa match would
be difficult, thinking back to their loss he admitted that the Blues needed to be more physical to get some results. He said this difficult time would be good to show their quality and said he would not blame a poor result on injuries because he had faith
in his lineup.
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