Chelsea winger Yuri Zhirkov
is fed-up with his current injury problems.
Zhirkov is suffering from a compound knee injury that was
aggravated against AC Milan on
the pre-season tour of America.
Nevertheless, he was called up by Guus Hiddink and is desperate
to shake off a frustrating injury that has proved difficult to
diagnose and manage.
"In some ways it would be better if there had been a tear and I
knew that I'd be out for a month, for example," said the £18million
summer signing from CSKA Moscow.
"Even the doctors cannot say anything definite. It's incredibly
difficult. I just want to wake up and know that the pain has
completely gone.
"The pain has become far more tolerable. Two weeks ago it hurt
to even stand on it and I couldn't train at all.
"It still aches a little. I trained on Saturday before coming to
the national team but I collided with another player and it was
quite painful.
"But on my first day back here I crawled on my knees, playing
with my son for more than an hour, and I forgot about it."
To make matters worse, Zhirkov has also needed to see a dentist
for toothache since returning to Russia.
