Didier Drogba will miss start of MLS season due to turf
Didier Drogba will be a member of the Montreal Impact at the start of the MLS season, but he won't be playing. The striker is opting to sit out the start of the season because the Impact will play four of their first five matches on artificial turf.
"We saw last year when we played [on turf] in New England, his knee really swelled up and he really had a tough time recovering afterwards for the playoffs," Impact sporting director Adam Braz told reporters. "It's simply a matter of not taking a risk. The season is long. There are 34 games.
"Its unfortunate with our scheduling that four of the first five games are on turf. We have to deal with that, but it's a long season and there are a lot of games left to play. If we manage him correctly, he'll be good to go for the rest of the season and healthy at the end, when it counts."
The reason there is such a concentration of matches on turf to start the season is because the Impact play their home matches in the first month of the season at the domed Olympic Stadium to avoid the winter weather outside. Once they get through the start of the campaign, they move to their regular home stadium, Stade Saputo, which has grass. But two matches at the Olympic Stadium plus two road matches on turf make for an unforgiving start for Drogba.
After the first five matches, the Impact play just four of their remaining 29 MLS contests on artificial turf, so playing surface should not be a major factor for Drogba and Montreal in the season's final seven months. The Impact and Drogba haven't decided if he will play on aritificial turf after the season's opening month.
Drogba, who turns 38 years old next week, isn't the first player to avoid matches on turf in MLS. Thierry Henry famously skipped matches played on the artificial surface during his time with the New York Red Bulls.
If Drogba doesn't play on turf, it wouldn't be much of an issue. A player his age wouldn't be counted on to play every match, anyway, and would probably miss anywhere from five to 10 matches a season just to rest. If the Impact work his rest days around matches on turf, everything will be fine, so long as a refusal to play on artificial surfaces doesn't extend into any potential postseason matches.
Then, Montreal may have a problem.
