Chelsea defender Abdul Baba Rahman has paid tribute to the club’s medical staff after overcoming a third ACL operation.
Baba Rahman, currently on-loan with Reading, is with Ghana at the World Cup.
“I went home after a scan that I thought was a minor injury, they called to say the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in the other knee has gone,” Rahman told the London Evening Standard
“I just went to sleep after five minutes of this call. The third one was something I couldn’t take. It was tough, it was tough, it was tough…” he says, tailing off into his despair.
“You have to understand that having two ACLs and a meniscus operation shows how tough and mentally strong I am to get back to playing again.
“It came after the surgeon told my agent that I should be happy if I could even get back to playing again after the first one, because of the complications in the knee.
“I would like to thank Paco [Biosca], Thierry [Laurent], John [Fearn] and Stewart [Vaughan] at Chelsea. They were like angels to me. They gave me strength and always helped me to stay positive.
“At one point, I decided I had to quit football because of all the complications I had but they just gave me the confidence to keep going.
“I remember after the first ACL injury at the African Cup of Nations, I was 22 and now I am 28. I feel like it flashed by. Every operation is tough. I’ve not had the games that I dreamt of and it has gone too fast – and that’s very frustrating for me.”
