The hamstring injury suffered by Estêvão against Manchester United a couple weeks ago is said to be about as bad as it gets for such injuries, but the youngster has apparently opted against surgery (for now anyway) and is attempting to rehab it conservatively with faint hopes of a World Cup squad spot evidently on his mind still as well.
And if that wasn’t a frustrating enough sentence already, it would appear that the youngster is doing his rehab in Brazil for some unfathomable reason. We saw Estêvão
at the FA Cup semifinal, celebrating our win, but he’s now gone away to use the facilities at his old club, Palmeiras instead. According to Globo Esporte, he’s doing so under the supervision of Chelsea, but also working with his own private “health and performance” team at the same time. Chelsea’s medical team had suggested surgery, but the youngster and his “team” have chosen otherwise. Ugh.
The 19-year-old is undoubtedly hoping that by some miracle of miracles he does recover in time for the World Cup, which starts in a little over a month, but that’s highly unlikely, at best — though Brazil are still “monitoring” the situation with the squad announcement due in a couple weeks. National team head coach Carlo Ancelotti does love the kid, but surely there’s no real chance of him going.
It’s obviously a disappointing and frustrating situation for all involved, but risking further injury (and recurring injury) is hardly worth it. We’ll be lucky to have Estêvão back for the start of next season, let alone back to his best self anytime soon.
