Michael Essien recover from his knee injury until the end of July, more than two weeks after the tournament was to end. Since then, Essien has announced that he will be standing down from the Ghana national side for the near future in order to focus on his career with Chelsea, having suffered two significant injuries while playing for Ghana in recent years. Having recovered from those injuries, Essien subsequently promised his availability to his nation "very soon". Essien returned to Ghana's squad in August 2013 for the team's final 2014 World Cup qualifiers. He appeared as a second-half substitute in a
Michael Essien £24.4 million fee for Essien, ending one of the longest-running transfer sagas. At the time, the fee made Essien Chelsea's most expensive signing of all-time, surpassing the £24 million Chelsea paid for Didier Drogba the previous summer. The transfer went through on 19 August. The transfer came under scrutiny in the Stevens inquiry report, which expressed concerns because of the lack of co-operation from agents Pini Zahavi and Barry Silkman. Essien made his debut as a second-half substitute against Arsenal on 21 August 2005, wearing the number 5 on his shirt. The match ended in a 1–0 victory to Chelsea.