Ghana have been given a major boost in their preparations for the second group G match against latest Germany with the news that former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has returned to training. The AC Milan midfielder has been suffering from numerous injury problems in the last five years. This even made him take a voluntary break from international football. However, his return has been a major boost for the national team at the World Cup 2014, although results have not been positive. They lost their opening match against United States 2-1.

Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has failed Inter Milan captain Javier Zanetti, who announced his retirement from the game a few days ago. Zanetti is regarded as one of the legends of the club after having been playing in the top-level for them for more than two decades. During his stellar career, the Argentine represented the clubs and has played for more than two decades. Most of it has come for Italian Serie A Giants Inter Milan. Michael Essien has seen from close up the popularity of Zanetti.

Former Ghana captain Stephen Appiah has requested the media not to put pressure on AC Milan midfielder Michael Essien, who recently sealed the free transfer to the Italian club. Essien is regarded as one of the best players to have represented in the Ghana National team over the last few decades. However, he has suffered from a succession of injury problems over the last five years and it has prevented him from featuring for the national team on a regular basis. In the last few years, though, he has been making a solid comeback from the injury troubles.

Michael Essien’s last few seasons with Chelsea was not the best of his career as he was being left out of a number of matches and had to settle with a place on the sidelines. His age was a factor that gave him a huge disadvantage as he had to battle for a place in the starting lineup of Jose Mourinho who preferred using some younger and faster options such as Oscar, Hazard or Nemanja Matic.

His lack of playing time with Chelsea ultimately led to him being transferred out to Ac.Milan as he signed a one and half year contract deal with the Italian club who currently are struggling trying to find a top 5 spot in the Serie A.

Chelsea have been given a tough fixture schedule according to its manager José Mourinho, who has hit out at the organisers for scheduling Chelsea’s visit to Fulham just a few days after their Champions League match against Galatasaray.

Even though the match took place on Wednesday night, Chelsea players were able to return to London only on Thursday morning. Mourinho says that the recovery time for this match, which will take place in Saturday afternoon, is very low and that it is an indirect advantage to their main title rivals – Arsenal and Manchester City.

Keisuke Honda’s arrival to the Italian side Ac.Milan was supposed to mark a sense of a revival for the club but the Japanese player despite having displayed flashes of brilliance it still is not enough to catapult the team where they wish to be.

The situation in the club was so deteriorated that Allegri had to be sacked and removed from the position of head coach with the former player Claerence Seedorf replacing him and the recently appointed Dutch tactician has had to settle with a number of draws since being at the head of the club.

Michael Essien was another signing that the Italian club managed to make before the transfer window came to an end. Since making his move to Chelsea, the Ghanaian defensive midfielder has helped the Premier League team on winning 2 League tiles, 4 FA Cups, 1 Champions League and 1 FA Community Shield.

Ac.Milan is hoping that Essien will help them secure silverwares just as he did when he played for Chelsea.

Essien spoke about some of the reasons he decided to join Ac.Milan.

Essien said "I have just signed my contract with one of the best clubs in the world. Im very happy and looking forward to winning with the team#ForzaMilan."

"I cannot wait to join the team in training and be a part of Milan's family," he added on Milan Channel.

"I am very happy to have spoken to the Milan boss Clarence Seedorf, he is a nice person. It's a pleasure to have heard what Seedorf had to say about me. I always give my best and battle for the team from the first minute until the last. I hope to achieve something important and give my best for Milan."

Michael Essien might not be playing for Chelsea in the second half of the ongoing season as he is willing for an away move during the mid season transfer window.

Essien had played for Real Madrid on loan in the last season, but, at the start of the ongoing season, he was back to his parent club and with Jose Mourinho making his way back to the Stamford Bridge, it was expected that the Ghana midfielder would feature in the starting XI of the Blues quite regularly, but, that hasn’t happened. He has been given the starting opportunity only a couple of times in the Premier League so far this season.

The club which is believed to be most interested to secure the services of Essien is Al Ain. They are the biggest club in United Arab Emirates and they are currently desperate for a quality midfielder because of the fitness problems of their main playmaker Mirel Radoi.

Radoi had discovered a leg injury while playing in the game against Ahli and he hasn’t managed to recover from that yet. He has played a few games of late though, but, quite clearly, he was not moving that well on the pitch in those games. According to the reports, he might have to undergo surgery to get rid of that problem completely.

While talking to the reporters a couple of days ago, one of the spokespersons of Al Ain refused to say anything when he was asked about the chances of Essien being signed, but, he didn’t deny the rumours either.

Asamoah Gyan who is the skipper of Essien’s national side Ghana also plays for Al Ain and that’s one of the things which might persuade Essien to sign for the UAE club.

Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien made only his second start of the season in midweek in the Capital One Cup encounter against Arsenal and his performance on the night is being seen as a clear signal that the Ghanaian international is slowly but steadily getting back to his reliable best at the centre of the Chelsea midfield.

Truly, it seems a long time now since Essien joined the club back in 2005 when Jose Mourinho, in his first stint as Chelsea manager brought his to West London from French club Lyon for a fee of £ 26 million. He was an absolute beast for the club in defensive midfield during his first few seasons at the club before a knee injury slowed down his progress and last season, Mourinho took the player on loan to Real Madrid.

And it wasn’t seen by anyone as making up the numbers because Mourinho knows exactly what the midfielder is capable of and he used Michael Essien during his short stay with the club.
And now, reunited once again at Chelsea, the Ghanaian has found first team opportunities hard to come by with just one start before that match against Arsenal. He played the full 90 minutes against lowly Swindon Town in the last round of the Capital One Cup.

Essien played the full match against Arsenal, getting more touches on the ball than any other Chelsea player and he racked up an amazing 64 passes throughout the match, which was also, more than that managed by his teammates.

The 30 year old showed Mourinho exactly how dependable he exactly is and he had Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere bottled up completely. And with competition for places in midfield very high at Chelsea, Michael Essien has made it more interesting by throwing his name into the hat.

Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien is absolutely delighted to have Jose Mourinho back at Stamford Bridge and the Ghanaian hopes the return of The Special One will bring a lot more glory to the West London club.

Essien spent the last season in the Spanish capital, playing for Mourinho on loan from Chelsea at Real Madrid and he mentioned that he had known the Portuguese tactician would be returning to his beloved Chelsea before the news became public in May. The Ghanaian international was brought to Stamford Bridge by Mourinho but had fallen down the pecking order in midfield under the succession of managers who came in after him and now that the Portuguese has returned after six years away, Essien is keen to play a key role under him once again.

According to Michael Essien, he is ready to give his all for Chelsea. He added that he hasn’t lost any motivation or desire to succeed, before going to state that he had been working very hard over the off season to be fit, both physically and mentally and he feels really good about the work he has done so far.

The former Lyon midfielder also mentioned that the team will give its best shot this season. All the trophies are up for grabs and according to Essien, Chelsea fans can rest assured that the club will go all out and try and bring as many trophies to Stamford Bridge as possible.

Michael Essien also mentioned when he scored the goal for Real Madrid in the last match of the season, he ran towards Mourinho to celebrate and instead of congratulating him, the Portuguese simply told him he expects to see him at pre-season training on the 8th of July and he had found that to be extremely funny too.

The Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien, has made it clear that he has not retired from international football and he will make a comeback for the Black Stars after talking to the officials of Ghana Football Association.

In 2011, after returning from a severe cruciate ligament injury, Essien had clearly told Ghana Football Association that he didn’t want to be selected for the national team for some time as he wanted to focus on his club career. Since then, he hasn’t turned up for the Black Stars.
There had been a few reports that Essien has decided to retire from international football now, but, the Chelsea superstar has denied those reports.

Talking to the correspondent of a Ghanaian news channel a few days back, Essien said, “I haven’t quit international football yet. These reports are not true. I am hoping to play for my nation at some point of time in the future.”

“I can declare myself available for selection only after meeting the GFA officials. Before that, I can’t say when I will be coming back.”

Some former players often criticize Essien for not being 100% committed to his country. When asked about that, he said, “It’s not true at all. It hurts me when people say like that. I have always been fully committed to my country. Whenever I have worn the Ghana shirt, I have given my 100%.”

“I never said that I didn’t want to play for Ghana. I just said that I wanted a bit of a break. That’s it.”

Essien had made his debut for the senior team of Ghana against Morocco in the African Cup of Nations in 2002. He has so far featured for Ghana in 52 matches and has found the back of the net 9 times.