There are few words and phrases more frightening in the English language than “knee injury specialist”, which makes yesterday’s report from the Evening Standard a bit of a scary story indeed.
The outlet’s exclusive claims that João Pedro has been “receiving treatment from a specialist” for the knee injury that’s kept him out of our last game before the break, and out of Brazil duty during the break as well. The scariest part of the story is simply the unknowns surrounding this mystery injury, which was actually revealed by the Brazilian team when they called up a replacement. Chelsea only confirmed his absence from the Brentford match and have provided absolutely no information since (which seems to be the new trend for the club).
Reports in Brazil have claimed that JP has picked up some sort of minor strain, which could potentially keep him out for three-four weeks. Given the extended nature of this international break, a three-week absence would actually have him back in time for the season to resume on October 10, but that seems a bit optimistic at the moment. He was not pictured back in training this week, unlike the rest of the squad not involved in international duty (or not dealing with an injury of their own).
The Standard’s report frames this news in a positive light (i.e. “JP trying to get back as soon as possible”), which is certainly better than having to see a specialist to assess an injury that’s proving more serious than previously thought, but with so little actual information to go on, speculation will always skew towards the negative… (especially given that the injuries to Moisés Caicedo and Marco Palestra have dragged on for over a month now).