Aging Drogba balks at turf battles
Didier Drogba would rather be anywhere else. Back at Chelsea. In the Middle East. And, perhaps, training this month in Miami.
At issue is the former Ivorian international’s sore knees.
Disregard the fact he appeared to be moving quite freely in a recent dance video posted to social media.
He’s old and achy, apparently. And turf fields are too strenuous.
So he’s sitting out until the Montreal Impact play on a natural surface, the Impact confirmed Thursday.
As a result, the soon-to-be-38year-old will miss Montreal’s first two games, on turf at BC Place Stadium — as reported in The Vancouver Sun on Thursday — and Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
Drogba could miss two more — both on turf — following a potential debut in Dallas on March 19.
An RDS report indicated Drogba hoped to train on grass with Miami FC for a few weeks, an idea Major League Soccer apparently quashed to save face. A shame, his recent display of dance moves would have fit in alongside a throng of spring breakers.
That’s not to say Drogba won’t take his precautionary absence seriously. We don’t really know, though, do we?
Just like we still don’t know exactly what happened earlier this year when Drogba appeared destined to return — in some way, shape or form — to the Premier League. For whatever reason — tampering or some disagreement — a deal with Chelsea fell through eventually.
But if Drogba truly wanted to remain in Montreal, those discussions, the reports, the speculation wouldn’t have dragged on for weeks.
No, he wouldn’t have been M.I.A. for the first three weeks of pre-season and, now, the season.
It’s becoming impossible to not question his “commitment” — ironically the title of Drogba’s new autobiography — considering his absenteeism.
While his Impact teammates were testing and competing and preparing in February, Drogba was in Qatar last month doing something. Training was the implication. Is playing tennis on hard courts — something Drogba recently Instagrammed — good for lower extremities?
Or was missing the first few weeks the plan all along after Drogba, when report after report said he wouldn’t, agreed to come back for the 2016 season? He seemed healthy enough during a half of pre-season action in Tampa last Saturday.
His head coach, Mauro Biello, described Drogba as “pretty fit” last week.
This is the same anti-turf sob story once perpetuated by league prima donnas such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry.
Based on the excuses pouring out of Impact camp Thursday you’d reckon artificial turf was akin to playing on asphalt or cement. Never mind the fact his Impact teammates, heck, most of MLS, have been playing on turf for weeks.
If every MLSer with a history of minor-to-severe knee injuries avoided turf there wouldn’t be a league.
That’s why Impact fans shouldn’t simply twiddle their thumbs and accept what’s quickly becoming a mockery. It cheapens the league, especially when MLS’s other big names play and train on turf fairly often.
League MVP Sebastian Giovinco featured in four of five turf games for TFC in 2015 and Kaka plays on it regularly. Scores of other MLSers play and practise on turf almost every week without incident. Is Drogba built differently? If he is, if Drogba’s knees indeed can’t handle the alleged (studies have shown turf doesn’t actually increase the risk of injury) stresses of playing on artificial surfaces, then the signing is up for criticism for the duration of his stay.
Who knows how long that will be?