Something is Broken with Didier Drogba

By: Daryl | December 7th, 2007

Something is Broken with Didier Drogba Well this is eerie. Just yesterday we proposed a hypothetical situation where Didier Drogba picked up a long term injury while playing for the Ivory Coast, and questioned whose responsibility that was and also whether clubs were fully supportive of their player’s international careers. Today we learn that Double D does indeed have a long term problem with his knee, called degeneration of the meniscus, which he aggravated while representing his country. It gets worse for Chelsea, because though the injury will require surgery and recuperation, his return date coincides with Ivory Coast’s participation in the African Cup of Nations. That smell ladies and gentlemen is a freshly brewed pot of club vs country.

Drogba is famously planning to leave Stamford Bridge, having declared that “something is broken at Chelsea” after Jose Mourinho’s departure. But now something is broken with Drogba and it seems Chelsea are considering the possibility of either delaying the surgery or at least trying to stop him from participating in the African Cup of Nations (January 20th to February 10th next year, since you ask) after he recovers.

Chelsea are stuck in the horrible situation of not wanting to be without Drogba in the short term (remember when he was injured at the start of the season and they couldn’t win a game?) but also not wanting to further damage their relationship with him in the long term. If they keep him out of the ACN (where Ivory Coast have a genuine chance of winning the trophy but rely on Drogba at least as much as Chelsea do) then he’s going to throw a fit and probably try on AC Milan, Real Madrid and Barcelona shirts to see which is the better look for the 2007/8 season. If Chelsea acquiesce then they lose Drogba for the duration of his surgery and then again for the duration of the African Nations Cup, where he also runs the risk of re-injuring his knee.

I’d argue that if Chelsea want to keep him long term then they should keep him happy in the short term and make getting him operated on and fit for the ACN a priority. It runs counter to their immediate needs, but makes sense for next season and beyond. In the meantime, all this drama means a certain £30 million man named Andriy Shevchenko will get one last chance to prove he’s not the biggest waste of money in the history of football.