When Manchester United attacking midfielder Marouane Fellaini strained his knee ligament while on international duty with Belgium about a month ago, the initial prognosis had him being out of action for only a couple weeks.
Obviously that was optimistic/wrong/misleading etc. as the big Belgian finally returned to action yesterday in United’s 1-0 loss at Chelsea. It’s certainly not the fault of Fellaini, but instead the handlers of misinformation about him, as he heroically rushed himself back into the fray, trying to help his team in their biggest match of the season.
Fellaini only trained with the team just the day before, and his efforts were hailed by his manager Jose Mourinho.
The Portugese told his news conference afterward: “I have to say that Fellaini was fantastic for me, for his fellow players, for the fans, for the team, for the club because he was injured (for) weeks. He trained on Saturday for the first time with the team, and he put himself on the line ready to come in and help if the team needed him.”
“So really, really pleased. I don’t want to let it go blank, that word with him.”
Fellaini really is one of United’s most important players, and if they are going to stand any chance at all of catching Manchester City in the Premier League title race, they will need him to stay healthy. Now with Fellaini back, it’s one returned, and waiting on three more (Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo) in the long term absentee department.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
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