Well this season has not had the strong start that Everton was hoping for. Currently the squad is in thirteenth place, but they are at least beginning the slow climb up the board. But despite Everton’s recent push up the board it has also been a season filled with many setbacks for the top five squad from last year. One of these unfortunate setbacks has been the health of midfielder Mikel Arteta.
Arteta has been out of action for so long that the team he was hurt against, Newcastle United, is no longer even in the Premier League and has been relegated to the second tier. The critical midfielder went down with a bad knee injury in February of last season during a 0-0 draw. That loss could take much of the blame for the troublesome start that Everton has experienced so far this season.
But at least the midfieder with over half of a year recovery time is ready to go, right? Think again.
Arteta has what we refer to here in the states as “Tom Brady Disease” which is named after the NFL New England Patriots star QB. And no this is not a sexually transmitted disease or a disease that makes you more appealing to supermodels. It is more serious then these things are to your playing career. Arteta’s similarity to Brady is the fact that he has a defective knee.
Both men suffered a serious cruciate knee ligament injury (Brady’s was a year ago) and both men went through the process of having surgery done to the injury in order to repair it. But in both cases the doctors found an infection after the surgery and had to go back in to clean or “wash out” the infected areas.
It sounds rather bizarre, but this is the second time I have heard of this procedure done in the last year. As for Brady he is back in action after a season off and beginning to regain his form. But Arteta will likely miss a significant amount more time due to this procedure plus whenever he is healthy he will have to overcome a serious amount of time away from the game.
Arteta will likely not regain his form until the spring.
{ 1 trackback }