Move to London is blamed for Yury Zhirkov’s injuries

Simon Johnson
18 Nov 2009

Yury Zhirkov believes the injury-plagued start to his Chelsea career has, bizarrely, been caused by a struggle to adapt to his new life in London.

Zhirkov has started just one game for Chelsea since his £18million move from CSKA Moscow in the summer and that was in the Carling Cup victory against Queen's Park Rangers.

The 26-year-old midfielder, who is set to play in the second leg of Russia's World Cup play-off against Slovenia tonight, has been struggling with pain in both knees since arriving at Stamford Bridge.

The problem has baffled both the player and the Chelsea medical team.

Zhirkov said: “The English doctors see my problems as a reaction of the body to drastic changes — in the climate, lifestyle, training work and in everything else. And no one can tell me what the medical predictions of my rehabilitation are.

“The British physicians even consulted with German specialists regarding me.

“They sent them my x-rays together with the detailed description of the problem but, as far as I understand, they failed to diagnose the problem.

“I try to remain optimistic: many players have had such difficulties. I am not the first, not the last. It is a pity that the problems coincided with my move to a new club.

“But if I keep being distressed the situation will not change. I must work and believe that everything is going to straighten out soon.

“In Chelsea the team is very good, all of them understand my situation. My case is not the first one, many newcomers of Chelsea were sidelined in the first months at the club.”

Zhirkov hopes now that he may be able to contribute more after playing for his country tonight, especially as current first-choice left-back Ashley Cole is struggling with a stress fracture of the leg.

The Russian, who was bought on the advice of previous manager Guus Hiddink, can play in defence as well as in midfield and believes that better days are just round the corner.

“Actually my knees are getting better. Before going to the national team, I spent two comprehensive training sessions with Chelsea without any difficulty, ” said Zhirkov.