Chelsea’s Reserve team striker Adam Phillip is unfortunately set for another lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a serious knee injury during training on Monday morning.
The 20 year-old revealed on his personal Twitter account that he has damaged his cruciate and medial knee ligaments and faces between six and nine months out of action.
It’s the third time since 2008 that the forward has suffered a serious knee injury, but comes just as he was approaching a year without a serious setback.
Adam scored eight times for Steve Holland’s reserve team last season en route to the Barclays Reserve League title and was in a rich vein of form this summer, netting in every pre-season friendly before notching against Sunderland in the season opener at Cobham last Monday.
A loan spell was almost certain for a player who needs regular first team football at this stage of his career, with whispers of a mooted move to Vitesse Arnhem emerging earlier today.
Unfortunately, he will be forced to return to the treatment table and join two other young footballers at Cobham who have been cursed by knee trouble.
First-year scholar Nortei Nortey missed most of last season with a cruciate ligament injury of his own, and will miss a similar amount of time in 2011-12 having suffered damage to his other knee.
Second-year midfielder Danny Stenning, meanwhile, has been out since March after a catastrophic knee injury suffered in league action against MK Dons and is unlikely to return until 2012.
Indeed, such problems have afflicted those on the younger side of the divide at Cobham, with James Ashton, Carl Magnay, Daniel Pappoe, and Phillip Prosenik all missing considerable time with similar injuries in recent years.
Phillip’s absence will be sure to hit Dermot Drummy’s reserve team hard, with a short-term selection dilemma ahead of their clash with Bolton tomorrow night.
Milan Lalkovic’s loan spell at Doncaster means that Drummy only has one regular reserve team member with experience in their 4-3-3 formation in Billy Clifford, but Daniel Sturridge has travelled with the squad.
The England Under-21 forward remains suspended for first-team action until next week and could do with some match time, and will be a likely starter at the Lancashire FA’s ground tomorrow.
Looking further down the line, Drummy may attempt to work around Marko Mitrovic and Philipp Prosenik, both prototypical centre-forward types, whilst perhaps gifting opportunities to some of the younger players like Adam Nditi or Walter Figueira.
Everyone at TheChels.net wishes Adam a speedy recovery.