Montréal Impact will be without Didier Drogba scored the game against Orlando City, according to the club in the latest fitness update.

The former Chelsea striker has suffered a hip flexor injury and has returned to London in order to recover. Drogba’s absence, however, is likely to help Dominic Oduro get a runaround in the first-team. After joining the Canadian outfit midway through last season, Drogba has been a major influence in the first-team even though he has not played much due to injuries. The club are aware that they should manage him in order to have him fit for the big games.

At 38 years of age, he may carry on playing for at least one more year before announcing his retirement. In fact, Drogba was linked with an early retirement in order to become a coach at Chelsea when the club had sacked Jose Mourinho towards the end of 2015. The impact Drogba has had on the team is evident from his record of four goals and three assists from just seven matches. He has contributed a goal every game either directly or through assists. Fellow African Dominic Oduro has also been in decent goal scoring form. He has four goals in 11 appearances, but doing well in the absence of Drogba can be a major boost.

“We all know Didier’s hurt. We’re going to a hostile place, but we also know (Orlando) will want to come forward and put pressure on us.But guess what happens when they do that? There’s space in behind,” saidOduro. “If (Drogba) is in the lineup, he has tendencies we need to exploit and when there are other players in the lineup, the way we play changes. If you have Oduro up top, who can get in behind, it’s different from Didier, who is better back to goal and holding up play and being more physical,” said manager Mauro Biello.

Didier Drogba says that his physical condition is improving and he may be ready to start the upcoming game for Montréal Impact.

So far, the former Ivory Coast international has been involved only as a substitute in the last two games. A sore knee has prevented Drogba from making an impact in the 2016 MLS campaign so far. The club also took a precaution with regard to the striker by not utilising him in the opening four matches since it was played on artificial pitches. Four out of the first five games for Montréal Impact were set to be played on the artificial pitches.

Due to cold weather the start of a campaign, clubs closer to Canada are forced to play indoors on plastic pitches. Drogba made his debut for the 2016 campaign by coming on as a substitute against FC Dallas. However, he was unable to prevent Montréal Impact from losing 2-0 in the game. His next appearance was also as a substitute against Chicago Fire. This time around, his presence was much more useful for the team as they managed 2-1 win over Chicago. This comeback victory was aided by the equaliser by Drogba. After scoring 11 goals in 11 appearances for the club last season, Drogba will be looking to play on a regular basis from here on.

“I’m improving. It was good to play those minutes, but now I need to push in the training sessions to make sure I’m ready to start.Maybe not 90 [minutes], but at least start and play 60 or 70. It depends how long I can rely on my legs. It’s a good rivalry, I can see our fans are really excited about it. A derby is there to be won. We have to win. But at the end the day it’s only three points,” said Drogba.

Former Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku says that the expert advice from the likes of Ian Wright and Didier Drogba has been a major assistance towards improving his career.

Lukaku was dubbed as the next Drogba when he was coming through the ranks at Anderlecht. The Belgian international then joined Chelsea in the hope of living up to his tag name. Even though his time at Chelsea was unfruitful in terms of number of appearances, Lukaku developed as a player. He is now regarded as one of the top strikers in the Premier League – after 12 months of leaving Chelsea on a permanent basis.

Lukaku has just scored more than 25 goals during the 2015-16 campaign. More could be on the cards since Everton are involved in the latter stages of the FA Cup as well. The striker recently spoke about his desire to be involved in the Champions League once again. It has sparked speculation that clubs like Manchester United and Real Madrid could offer a massive contract for him. Only Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane have been able to score more than Lukaku. At 23 years of age, the striker has been able to dominate games already and he has attributed the advice from Drogba as a reason towards this improvement.

Lukaku played with Drogba for one season at Chelsea.“I think I answered the question well enough: ‘What can Romelu do, and what can’t he do?’ I spoke about it with Didier (Drogba) and Ian Wright; they gave me a few tips.I changed my game enormously since last year. I am sometimes too introverted. I’m too afraid to ask for the ball and try. If it does not work, I have to try again, continue until it works. This is what has increased my number of goals and assists,” said Lukaku.

Didier Drogba has struggled with knee issues in the last five years.

There was a recurrence of the same while playing for Montréal Impact on turf pitches. This means that the club had to do without their star centre forward during the play-off matches last season. Keen to avoid a repeat of the same, technical director Adam Braz stated that Drogba is unlikely to feature in the opening few games of the 2016 season. The first five matches of the campaign will be played on artificial pitches, which has not been good enough for Drogba’s fragile knee.

Montréal Impact know that they stand to profit heavily from Drogba’s presence in key games. Hence, managing the former Chelsea striker is key towards the club achieving its goals in the 2016 campaign.Four of the first five games in the club’s campaign will be played on artificial pitches due to harsh weather conditions. Drogba has ruled out that this precaution is being given as an excuse, as he tries to engineer a return to Chelsea. The former Ivory Coast international was linked with a return to Stamford Bridge as a coach when the club had sacked Jose Mourinho.

Drogba has reaffirmed his commitment to Montréal Impact by saying that this decision is just a precaution and he will continue playing for the MLS outfit. “Didier won’t be available for the beginning of the season while we’re training or playing on turf. It’s too big of a risk for us to take with him with his knee. As 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,” Braz said. Montréal Impact are up against Vancouver Whitecaps and New York Red Bulls in the opening two games.

Chelsea superstar Eden Hazard has revealed that he has received support from striker Didier Drogba to help him overcome his woes this season.

The attacking midfielder has suffered from a huge dip in form coupled with transfer rumours linking him to Real Madrid or Paris St Germain. The distraction on and off the field has been very difficult for the Belgian to cope with. He has either been injured or on a poor run of form this season. Hazard was crowned as the PFA Player of the Year, but he has just scored one goal this season.

As Hazard struggles to return to form, the player revealed that he has sought advice from one of the Chelsea legends in the form of Didier Drogba. The Ivory Coast international spent almost a decade at the club in two spells. During this period, he had to go through rough patches himself. On the whole, however, his record with the London club is extremely satisfactory. He has won the club numerous titles by scoring in almost 10 finals. There was also more than 150 goals in the Premier League from just over 350 matches. Drogba was linked with a return to the club in a coaching capacity a few months ago.

However, he is set to continue at Montreal Impact and see out the one year he has left on his contract.“He [Drogba] has always backed me.I’m not sure whether he’d ever experienced periods like that in his career, but I’ve always considered him a bit like a big brother.He’s there for me, whether it’s a text message or a phone call, and he’s helped raise my spirits. But I’ve never doubted myself,” said Hazard, who scored 14 league goals last season. He is yet to score in the league for the 2015-16 season.

When Nicolas Anelka had taken up the offer to play in China four years back, it was surprising for a lot of people.

Obviously people knew that there would have been plenty of cash involved in making Anelka sign that deal, but, at that stage of his career where he was still good enough to play for the European clubs, if it was right for the Frenchman to do that, nobody was too sure,
But, ever since, it seems to be becoming quite common now in professional Football that players, who still have a quite a bit to offer to the big teams, are moving to remote places and featuring in lesser known leagues.

The other big name in the game to do so after Anelka was Robinho.

The Brazilian playmaker enjoyed a lot of success playing for his nation as well as for various top clubs, but, he surprised people too last year when he made his way to China.

And, he was quickly joined over there by his compatriot Paulinho.

Paulinho’s move was actually more surprising in comparison to that of Robinho as he was only in his late twenties and his best days were probably ahead of him.

He had been doing well in England playing for the Spurs, Paulinho.

But, he still didn’t mind moving to a country where he would not be able to achieve as much satisfaction as a player as he would do in Europe or South America.

And, it’s not only China which is attracting these established players.

The Leagues in countries like Singapore and others are also landing some well known internationals and it’s only going to become more frequent in future which, in a sense, is pretty good for the game of Football.

José Mourinho believes that Chelsea striker Diego Costa will be unable to match the legacy of club legend Didier Drogba even though he may be on the lips of Chelsea fans. Costa has been a fan favourite since his first match for Chelsea last season.

A remarkable 20 league goals in his debut campaign got everyone going, but the Spaniard has struggled to replicate the same form this season. Even then, Costa remains favourite amongst the fans but he will struggle to come close to the legendary status enjoyed by his predecessor Drogba.

The Ivory Coast international played with Chelsea for more than 300 games over two spells. He ended up with more than 150 goals to his name, but the importance of those goals spoke volumes rather than the numbers itself. Drogba largely scored in key matches against the top teams. He was especially fond of scoring in the finals or semifinals of the tournaments. This helped the club win numerous trophies including the Champions League. Costa has been voicing concerns about leaving Chelsea either in January or in the summer, which comes as a surprise.

The manager recently admitted that Costa will see out his Chelsea contract, which still has three years left to run.”He didn’t say [he wanted to go back to Atletico]. He said that in football you never know. Filipe Luis was one example, but he could also say Fernando Torres.Atletico is a great club, Madrid is a great city, La Liga is a very good league, so why not a player 28 years old [sic: Costa is 27] not to think that in football it’s possible to be back? I don’t see a problem.
Drogba was here for 10 years. I don’t see Diego playing until he’s 38! He’s happy here, he likes to be here,” said Mourinho.