The ankle injury inflicted upon Chelsea loanee Marco van Ginkel (by one of his own AC Milan teammates, no less!) is apparently worse than first feared, and the midfielder is now set to be out for two months with ligament damage. Raise your hand if you saw that one coming. From a statement on Milan's website, here's club administrator Adriano Galliani:

I am really sorry for Van Ginkel. What a pity.After 30 years of watching training sessions, I know that he is a player with great talent. We hope he will recover as soon as possible and that he is able to showcase his talent. He has extraordinary feet, he is a good person and intelligent. All my best wishes for him for a speedy recover in order to give a helping hand to our team. Source: Sky Sports.

This sucks. This sucks a lot. Marco van Ginkel looked, for a while, to be a big part of Chelsea's future in midfield. He was smart, he could move, and had all the attributes one might need in a box-to-box player. Beyond that, he was intelligent, charming -- in other words, just the sort of footballer we all like to see succeed.

And then the injuries happened. That ACL tear against Swindon demolished any chance he had of making an impact last season, and at Milan, where he's easily good enough to get playing time, he's been subject to a series of less serious but still significant problems, culminating in Sulley Muntari knocking him out for months with a tackle in training.

Life really isn't fair sometimes. Get well soon, Marco.