Chelsea FC: Players
Marco van Ginkel making progress in latest injury recovery, could yet feature for Chelsea!
Wulfert Cornelius is back! Well, sort of...
By David Pasztor@D_Peezy Feb 7, 2019, 5:34am GMT
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Van Ginkel, Mourinho Mk.2 on their official Chelsea debuts
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
If things had turned out the way they were supposed to, Marco van Ginkel would most likely be a PSV player by now. But circumstances beyond his control intervened yet again last summer, when the latest in a series of major injuries struck. Van Ginkel spent the next eight weeks on crutches, and has been on the long road to recovery since.
Of course, if things had turned out the way they were supposed to, Van Ginkel would be a Chelsea star by now, groomed by José Mourinho into the next Frank Lampard.
Since joining Chelsea in 2013 and making his debut off the bench in that season's very first match, Marco's career has been defined by a series of unfortunate events. Ten minutes into his second start, in mid-September, he blew out his ACL and didn't play again until late March / early April, when he featured in a few games for the U23s. He then tried his luck in various loans, collecting further knee and major ankle injuries, before finally finding his feet at PSV (in the second go-around), where he managed to put together an injury-free (and goal-filled) 18 months and even captained the side to the 2017-18 Eredivisie title. Everything looked set for a happily ever after, except for that pesky knee.
So now here we are again, eight months later, with another major surgery in the books and the familiar sight of Van Ginkel recovering at Cobham. Said recovery is apparently going pretty well, though he's probably at least a month or two away still from returning to any sort of match action.
Another day at the club. Working hard on my recovery. We keep going to come back! #CFC
A post shared by Marco van Ginkel (@marcovanginkel) on Feb 6, 2019 at 7:38am PST
Still, it's certainly nice to see the now 25-year-old Wulfert Cornelius keep on keeping on. His boyish good looks may be fading, but his spirit isn't!
Plus, Van Ginkel has actually been added to Chelsea's Premier League squad list for the second half of the season (taking the non-homegrown spot vacated by Cesc Fàbregas), so there is a minor chance that he might actually feature for the first-team, which is something he hasn't done since those glorious first few weeks over five years ago.
He won't be fit for a while yet but, since there's space, Chelsea appear to have registered Marco van Ginkel in their PL squad now.
(These things often have mistakes or oddities too, like Piazon still being there)https://t.co/D3mm8t5X8E
— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) February 1, 2019