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Big things were expected from Marco van Ginkel, the young Dutch midfielder, who had been dubbed the ‘next Frank Lampard‘ by Vitesse manager Peter Bosz when he completed a move to Chelsea this summer. The youngster, who describes himself as a ‘box-to-box player’ who can ‘cover lots of metres’, was expected to nail down a spot in the starting XI in a few months given his physical style, goal-scoring prowess and excellent passing range.
However, an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament during Chelsea’s League Cup match against Swindon has ruled him out for around for a minimum of 6 months. Worst-case, he could be out for a period of 9 months.
It’s an unfortunate blow to the young midfielder who was no doubt hoping to do well enough at Chelsea to earn himself a call-up to the Dutch national side that would travel to Brazil for the World Cup next year. However, at the moment he may not even be fully fit by the time the World Cup will have begun, so it’s safe to say his World Cup dreams are all but over, unless by some massive miracle he is able to recover from his injury and get into full match fitness while also doing well enough to impress over a limited period of time.
Van Ginkel’s two main goals at the moment should be: recover fully from his injury and become a regular in Chelsea’s starting XI.
The first goal is an important one. Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are not to be taken lightly at all. It was this very injury that brought about Michael Essien‘s fall from grace. Marco van Ginkel will simply have to let the recovery run it’s natural course in order for it to fully heal and not cause himself any problems in the future.
He’s still very young and will have many more chances to represent his country; however, he won’t have much of a career if he decides to speed up the recovery and ends up with shot knees.
Once he is fully fit, the next thing for him to focus on would be making himself a regular in Chelsea’s starting XI. Frank Lampard’s Chelsea career will be over soon enough and the young Dutch midfielder is seen as a natural replacement to him. However, van Ginkel’s game isn’t all about goals; he’s also a surprisingly physical player, a trait he demonstrated against Real Madrid in pre-season when he bullied some of their players off the ball.
He also possesses a good passing range and has the ability to sit deep and dictate the play as well, something Lampard struggles to do at times. It’s apparent that he has a lot of potential; he will, however, have to work hard to get back his sharpness once he’s fully fit again.
With his World Cup dream seemingly over, van Ginkel must now concentrate on letting his injury heal and getting himself back to full match fitness and sharpness. An ACL injury is a bad one, but it isn’t career-threatening if it’s properly treated. As long as the correct treatment is given, him and Chelsea have nothing to worry about.
