37-year-old striker Didier Drogba is a Chelsea legend, an Ivory Coast legend, and a Montreal Impact legend in the making.
The former Blues forward scored 11 goals in 11 appearances in his debut season for the Canadian-based Major League Soccer side, seven in his opening 5 games, plus a hat-trick in his first start.
As a result, news that the Ivorian will miss four of his team’s opening five games of the upcoming Major League Soccer season, kick starting this Sunday, will come as a huge disappointment.
The club announced on Thursday, as per the MLS official website, that Drogba will not play on artificial turf in order to avoid knee injuries.
Speaking to the media, Montreal technical director Adam Braz underlined the fitness woes Didier sustained when playing on artificial surface as the key reason.
“Didier won’t be available for the beginning of the season while we are on turf, either training or playing on turf,” said Braz.
“It’s too big of a risk for us to take with him with his knee situation. As we saw last year when he played in New England, his knee really swelled up and he really had a tough time recovering afterward for the playoffs.
“We know if we manage him correctly, he’ll be good to go for the rest of the season and be healthy at the end when things count."
This means the 31-year-old will make his season debut on March 19 away to FC Dallas, and will thus sit out Montreal Impact’s clashes with Vancouver Whitecaps (March 6), Seattle (April 2), and two home games on their current artificial home surface against New York Red Bulls (March 12) and Columbus Crew (April 9).
Montreal Impact will move to the grass surface at Stade Saputo in time for April 23’s home encounter with Toronto FC.
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