Drogba Surgery Opens Up The Options

Didier Drogba is a major doubt for Chelsea’s opening games of the season with the club today announcing that the striker has undergone surgery on his troubled groin.

Chelsea’s statement this afternoon confirms that Drogba has had “minimally invasive surgery” and will not return to full training for “approximately three weeks”. That will surely put him out of Chelsea’s opener with West Brom on August 14 and make him a doubt for the trip to Wigan a week later at the very least.

This of course potentially makes the arresting decision of whether Fantasy Managers should select Frank Lampard or Didier Drogba all but a formality – the answer must categorically be Frank Lampard. He scored 14 goals in 18 appearances (and it would have been 15 had the petulant Drogba not “needed” that penalty on the final day of the season) and thrived once the 4-3-3 formation was welcomed back to the Chelsea squad, coincidentally when Drogba was last absent for the African Cup of Nations.

Drogba’s absence may also create a hole for Yossi Benayoun to slot into with Anelka surely set to shift from a wider role to that of the leading striker…

In fact this news opens up a can of worms as far as strikers are concerned. At the time of writing Drogba is the most selected player in the whole Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game and being priced at £12.5m the 36% of managers who had him in their provisional squads have the freedom of the world to find a replacement.

Anelka is an obvious new short-term target. At only £9m now the sulky Frenchman will prove a more than tantalising option in the interim, especially considering the delightfully kind set of opening fixtures Chelsea face.

Wayne Rooney will also surely pick up some of the Drogba slack. He will be looking to scrap back from the World Cup blues, and having not scored a goal since that fateful trip to Bayern Munich, will surely have the bit between his teeth to get himself back to winning ways – a home fixture at Newcastle could be just the remedy on opening day. Worst comes to worst, he’ll always have penalties and obligatory love from the bonus judges.

The likes of Tevez or Van Persie will also be well within reach for those replacing the Ivorian with their prices £2m or more less than that of Drogba in the FPL game, and in particular Van Persie who faces off against the likes of Blackpool and Bolton at home in his first four fixtures. Fitness is always an issue with Van Persie of course and we will need to keep an eye on his sharpness with World Cup fatigue a possible factor.

Plenty to mull over then. Drogba may even be back in training and ready to by the time the season kicks off, but it’s something well worth monitoring as these final weeks of pre-season roll on.