Plenty have had their say on Michael Essien over the past fortnight, from team-mates to Guus Hiddink, from outside commentators to fans who cheered the player's return. Now Chelseafc.com gives the man himself the chance to say a few words.
Michael Essien famously prefers to let his football do the talking. With that in mind, the player who is as quiet and unassuming as anyone you could find in the dressing room of a world-renowned football club, has in the last two games performed the on-pitch equivalent of climbing onto the rooftops with a megaphone and bellowing 'I'm back' to anyone within earshot.
By scoring game-changing goals and adding a dynamism and strength to Chelsea's play, one man's return appears to have re-energised hopes for the 10 weeks ahead.
It is reminiscent of the boost given to Chelsea by Gustavo Poyet's return from a cruciate injury 11 years earlier. That was also just in time for a European match and he too scored to level at 1-1 when the team looked to be descending toward elimination.
That year we went on to win the European competition we were in (the Cup Winners' Cup). It's a nice thought.
The two goals in the last two games have been one of the less-expected benefits of being Essien-equipped once more.
That he played the full 90 minutes of his first competitive game back, a reserve outing, and looked as energetic as anyone on the pitch in Sunday's win over Man City were likely to greeted by 'That's our Michael' nods of appreciation.
And that in his three first team games so far he has been asked to play three different positions simply shows Guus Hiddink is well-versed in the versatility of a player that has come under his wing.
Initially when given the green light to play again, Michael completed 60 minutes of a training ground practice match between teams of Chelsea reserve and youth players at Cobham. That was on the day of our home match against Juventus.
Five days later he took to the Villa Park pitch for a reserve fixture and played as a holding midfielder, scoring an 86th minute goal in a 4-3 defeat.
'I didn't know I was going to finish the game but as the game kept going, I felt strong and I said let me continue to the end,' Michael recalls from the match at the start of March.
'I am fit,' he adds with a smile.
Fit enough to persuade Hiddink, who sat in the stands for the whole match, to bring Michael on for the final 25 minutes of the Coventry FA Cup win five days later, again in an anchor role.
And then out of the blue came his deployment from the start as the widest, most forward player on the right of the team away to Juventus, with its dramatic consequence.
'It was quite strange, but I do a job for the team, it is not a big deal for me. They know my qualities and they know I could do it,' says the scorer of the first equaliser in the 2-2 draw in Turin.
'At first I thought Frank's shot was going to be a goal and then I saw that the ball was going to hit the crossbar so I tried to go for the rebound. I had to put it into the back of the net.
'I saw two defenders plus the goalkeeper there but I said let's go for it, you never know.
'It was great to be back and scoring. It had been a very long injury and in the end I managed to come back. The physios and doctors did a great job on me and the first thing that came into my mind when I scored was to go to Thierry [Laurent - Chelsea's rehabilitation physio] as he has been with me for the past six months.
'The rest of the physios have all done well but he was the one who was with me every day so I tried to go to hug him and say thank you.
'Didier [Drogba] has had a couple of problems with his knees as well and it was great that we both scored that night. The whole team did well to get qualified for the next stages. We did a great job.'
Tactical
What was remarkable about his selection in an unaccustomed position to the right of Drogba and Nicolas Anelka was that Luiz Felipe Scolari had tried the Ghanaian there in a pre-season friendly against Lokomotiv Moscow. Michael scored with a top-quality volley.
Two different managers with different coaching staff (Ray Wilkins had yet to return to Chelsea for the Moscow game) had both spotted the potential for something new.
'It was the same,' acknowledges Michael, 'although it was more tactical against Juventus because the gaffer wanted me to block Nedved. It is not my natural position but as I can fit in everywhere, I was happy to do it.
'It was more like 4-4-2 sometimes and Nedved played where the plan had expected him to until he had a knock and had to come off.'
Whether Hiddink will choose to repeat that selection should tactics demand remains to be seen. On Sunday, untethered from either the anchor role, which had been handed to Michael Ballack, or the need to counter a particular opponent, Michael was able to carry the game to Man City with his charges through midfield.
'It doesn't matter how you take it, the most important thing is the three points,' he said after his off-the-side-of-the-calf winning goal.
The performance must have been an uplifting sight for Joe Cole and Paulo Ferreira, our two more recent victims in a trio of cruciate ruptures that emphatically ended a decade clear of this injury at first-team level.
Poyet has already been discussed; goalkeeper Dmitri Kharine damaged the ligament a year earlier; but it was Pierluigi Casiraghi who completed the previous run of problems, suffering career-ending damage to other tissues at the same time in a collision at Upton Park in 1998.
Happily this season's three have been uncomplicated injuries.
'It is a shame,' Michael says of his colleagues. 'I don't know what happened but we never had this for years and one season we were just unlucky. But I am back now and hopefully the others can come back as well and help the team.'
First operation
The very earliest reports when he was struck down in a World Cup qualifier in Libya back in September claimed Michael had been the victim of a bad challenge. Then it came through that he had landed awkwardly after a leap. He puts the record straight, beginning the tale with that pre-season game against Lokomotiv Moscow.
'I had a knock in one of the games in Russia and I carried on playing and finished the game. The next day my knee was really swollen so when we came back from the pre-season, I went to do a scan but it didn't show a problem.
'I did work in the gym and played the first two games of the season for Chelsea. Then when we were with Ghana it happened.
'I was going to block a ball and then I found myself lying down and I knew there was something wrong. I was gong to block a cross, just normal running.
'It was my first bad injury and my first surgery but it was one of those things and you have to accept it.
'I had the operation in Paris. I knew the surgeon before and it was easy for me because I understand the language very well and I was with Thierry (pictured below) and they can communicate easily.
I knew I was going to be out for a long time and I just took things easy and took my instructions from the doctors and the physios. My Mum was there as well, and my best friends. Everybody was with me, as well as my team mates. It is great to be back among them and enjoying football.'
With knees the width of some people's necks, it seemed unbelievable at the time that Michael could suffer such an injury and one can only imagine the reaction in Ghana at the loss of their biggest sports star (so big that he was still named Ghana's Player of the Year in December despite the lay-off).
At the end of this month Michael's return will continue as his nation begins the next group stage towards qualification for the first World Cup in Africa.
'Ghana didn't play a lot of matches when I was out but they did really good when they did play. Maybe they won't need me.'
That's about as likely as Chelsea not requiring 'The Bison' in the final stages of the club campaign.
'We are still in the big competitions so we are looking forward to the rest of the games ahead and to keep fighting. We have to keep going and see what happens,' he orders.
That Michael Essien, with six months frustration and energy stored in the tank, will keep on going right to the end is in little doubt.
Read here what columnists Pat Nevin and Giles Smith had to say about Essien's return.
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