Anyone know the latest on his injury and when he'll be back? I was sort of looking forward to seeing more games of him in the Champions League.
Last I saw, he was up and running but he did not go with the team to Portugal. Don't know how much longer it will take for him to rehab, but I would hold my breath.
Two articles mentioning John. Anyone know dutch? http://www.ajax.nl/show/id=1322/contentid=26602 http://www.ajax.nl/show/id=1322/contentid=26905 Worth mentioning for JOB fans: on the english version of ajax.nl, Chivu mentions him as one of the best technical players in the team (along with van der Vaart and Zlatan). Here, we see he has turned to the bottle:
He didn't train with the rest of the first team (who are still in Portugal). Stayed in Amsterdam. That second link says his recovery has made a "noticeable improvement". But O'Brien says there is no "deadline" of when he'll be back.
From Dutch media (src unknown) This translation was sent to me by a reliable source, but I don't know the original source. If anyone DOES know the source, please email me or post it here. Thanks! ----------------------------------------------- O'Brien: "I am at last past running those laps! The exercises that I do now are more targeted on football. I do some exercises with the ball. Tomorrow I go to train on kicking. Today I trained on artificial grass, doing a regular workout. "It is an enormous difference with the three weeks off. I trained the whole winter break during the holidays. In America we celebrate only Christmas Day, so I was able to train every other day. I did much running. I had a complete program from Ajax and I have followed it closely. I am very relieved that it goes better now. "I hope I am fit soon, but I do not plan on a (specific) day. The day that I can play with the team never comes fast enough."
Re: From Dutch media (src unknown) This sounds like great news. At least there's been substantial improvement. Now if he could only get back and FSW would pick up the Dutch League again! Everything would be as it was!
Re: From Dutch media (src unknown) Way off topic, but this struck my curiosity somehow -- what other days do they celebrate in Holland that would keep one from training? Some sort of Boxing Day equivalent involving wooden shoes, speed skates and legal hashish consumption?
Re: Re: From Dutch media (src unknown) this may make you feel bad now so please forgive me, in Europe they have real Chrismas and New Year celebrations, they make them count for real. You get at least 2 or 3 days off , entire country celebrates, regular TV programing is cancelled , showing variety shows, great entertainment all around , ...but it's ok you don't know what you missing since you haven't experienced it
Ah, but then they'll never know the joys of SuperBowl Sunday, when the whole country stops to watch milliion-dollar commercials wedged in between four hours of football, during which about 10 minutes of actual football is played. And I love it. BTW, I found the article I quoted above re. JOB's recovery. It's in Dutch, and there's a good photo: http://www.ajax.nl/show/id=1322/contentid=26905