Chelsea have announced this evening that Frank Lampard is to undergo hernia surgery. The midfielder -having already missed a penalty- limped off this afternoon in the Blues 2-0 win over Stoke to continue a fairly unproductive start to the season.
The surgery is expected next Tuesday or Wednesday and will see Lampard miss both upcoming England internationals against Bulgaria and Switzerland. Reports reckon he’ll be out of action for around a fortnight, but with uncertainty surrounding his exact return date to first-team action, coupled with the far more impressive form of team mate Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba, Lampard’s Fantasy Premier League (FPL) stock will surely take a fall.
Priced at £13.0m, Lampard currently has 25% of FPL owners, less than both Malouda and Drogba, and with a fortnight now before the next Gameweek, it’s perhaps feasible to expect in the region of 0.2 to be shaved off that amount.
Chelsea have released a short statement, with Carlo Ancelotti saying:
‘He has a problem on his groin. He had the surgery ten years ago and this week was not very good. He also didn’t feel well in the game. So the only solution is to have surgery this week, maybe he will do this Tuesday or Wednesday. It means he is not able to play for the national team.
‘He’ll be ready in one week or two weeks. We have experience because it is the same surgery as Drogba and Drogba took one week before he was able to train. It is not a big problem. It is very easy surgery but he needs it because he started to feel pain.’
Lampard’s mobility has noticeably lessened at the start of this season; this now seems the likely reason. With a fit-again Frank raring to go in a few weeks time, perhaps he will replicate the form that has made him an FPL must-have for several seasons now.
In the meantime, the early-season form of the likes of Malouda (9.8m), Theo Walcott (7.1m) Paul Scholes (6.2m), James Milner (9.1m) and Gareth Bale (6.8m) plus Cesc Fabregas’ (12.0m) return to Arsenal’s starting XI will give his current owners plenty alternatives to consider should they choose to sell up until Frank’s return.