Essien’s injuries caused by his heavy thighs- Mikel Obi

By Daniel ODURO, Accra

One of Ghana and Africa’s gifted footballers, Micheal Essien is usually seen as a player who retired too early in his career and perhaps did not achieve his fullest potential despite his numerous achievements with Chelsea and other clubs.

Essien, one time the most expensive African footballer in the world suffered persistent injuries that curtailed his career.

And now one of his close pals and former team mates has offered an insight as to why Essien was almost always in the treatment room.

John Mikel Obi, has revealed that Michael Essien suffered consistent injuries in his career due to the weight of his thighs.
Mikel, who played with Essien at Chelsea, disclosed on his podcast that Chelsea’s doctors informed Essien that his injuries were because his knees could not carry the weight of his thighs.
He said the Ghanaian was only able to regain consistency in his fitness when he started losing weight in his upper body.
“He was always injured…the doctors said your weight on your knees, the weight of your thighs are so heavy that your knees can’t hold them. When you look at Michael, his thighs are massive and when you look at his knees, the knees are that tiny, then it made sense what the doctor said. So, he kept having reoccurring injuries until he started to lose the upper body to give his knees some rest and the freedom to be able to move.”
The Chelsea legend is rated as one of the best box-to-box midfielders to ever play in the Premier League. He was bulky, energetic, and very powerful, which earned him the nickname ‘The Bison’.
Essien had an illustrious career filled with many unforgettable goals scored for Ghana and in his club career while winning 13 titles along the line.

The adored midfielder scored 25 goals in his Chelsea career, the most he scored among the 8 different clubs he played.
The majority of Essien’s success was achieved while he was at Chelsea, the club he played for 10 years. His longest spell at a club.
He won four FA Cups, two Premier League titles, one League Cup, one Community Shield, and the Champions League.
In total, Essien won 13 titles in his career. He won four trophies at Olympique Lyon- two French Super Cups and two Ligue 1 titles before joining Chelsea in 2004.