Essien continues playing a back-up role
It’s been quite a few years now that Michael Essien has had to settle with a place on the sidelines of any club that he joins. This doesn’t come much as a surprise, especially after taking into consideration the fact that Essien is 33 years old and his age does appear to be catching up to him and it’s becoming evident in the pitch as well.
Michael Essien started being dropped to the sidelines on a more consistent basis when he joined Ac.Milan back on January of 2014 and the playing time of Essien with the Italian club was seriously limited as the veteran midfielder had to spend the majority of the time on the bench.
In 2 seasons, Essien made less than 25 appearances wearing the Ac.Milan jersey and he eventually decided to make a move away from the Italian club and Essien joined Panathinaikos as he signed a 2 year long contract with the Greek team on June of 2015.
Unfortunately for Michael Essien things haven’t been going any better as he continues to struggle trying to get consistent playing time in the main team.
After joining Panathinaikos, the veteran midfielder could not make an immediate debut as he was injured and had to wait for around 5 months until making a full recovery from his leg injury.
When Essienmanaged to recover from his injury and make a debut appearance, he became a regular starter for Panathinaikos but in the past few months, the Ghanaian midfielder is seeing passing most of his time on the sidelines and he has recently voiced his disappointment regarding how things have been going on as Essien said: “As far as I know, it’s not the case of technical reasons, nor has it to do with injury problems. I am healthy and I train every day since October when my injury was getting better.’’
‘’There has been no concerns with injuries in my discussions with the coaching staff.It’s not due to technical reasons or any problem related to football. It must be something else, but I guess that is something that must be answered by someone else. As for me, I am always ready to fight.”