Michael Essien's Chelseawoes go on after injuryin pre-season training

Michael Essien has suffered an injury during pre-season training with Chelsea.Michael Essien has suffered a fresh knee injury during Chelsea's pre- season training on Thursday. The midfielder is undergoing tests for the problem in his right leg, and the precise nature and severity of the damage will not become clear until Saturday or Sunday . There are bound to be fears at Chelsea
that the damage could be similar to knee problems suffered by Essien over the past three years. He sustained an anterior cruciate injury to his left knee in September 2008 that ruled him out until the following March and he missed last summer's World Cup after tearing the medial knee ligaments in the same leg during training for the Africa Cup of Nations in January 2010. Chelsea refused to confirm or deny claims by the club's former midfielder Jody Morris on Twitter that Essien had suffered a cruciate injury. A statement said: "Michael Essien suffered an injury to his right knee during training this week. He will undergo tests over the
next few days to determine the extent of that injury. Until we have the full results of those tests we will not be commenting further." Chelsea's first pre-season game is next Saturday when they play Portsmouth in a friendly before leaving for a tour to Asia a few days later.
Whether André Villas-Boas, the new manager,will be able to include the influential Ghanaian in this programme is unclear. Chelsea have appointed Michael Emenalo as technical director, with the 46-year-old Nigerian taking responsibility for Chelsea's scouting, with him stating he will aid Villas-Boas in deciding the club's playing personnel. He told Chelsea's website: "I'm going
to be supporting the manager and
working with him in making sure that things run smoothly. I have the responsibility to direct and manage our scouting structure internationally and domestically, and to keep an eye on and assist the progress of the academy. "Over the next weeks and months I will be getting the scouts in place, finding the people that will lead the scouts along with me, and integrating the agendas and ideas of the different areas from the first team to the academy. We have been gradually reducing the quantity of our scouts and also trying to improve the efficiency of the system.
"The final decisions about who comes in and who doesn't will be the manager's to make but there will be a lot of working together and I would imagine I will be part of that process.
" Branislav Ivanovic, meanwhile, has offered an initial insight into Villas-Boas's methods.
The defender said:
"The first impressions are very good.There has been an interesting dynamic to the first couple of training sessions, and we will have time to get to know him and see what he wants
us players to show him on the pitch. "I think he will give all the players a great opportunity to give their best for the team. Like him, we want to be a better group, a better team.
Individually everyone knows we
have the quality but we have to work as a team and as a group."