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 September 2016. On 13 March 2017, Essien joined the Indonesian club side Persib Bandung, signing a one-year contract with an option to extend for an additional year. He took the number 5 shirt for the 2017 Liga 1 season, the same number he wore during his nine years at Chelsea. Speaking about his move to Indonesia, Essien told the club's official website, "I hope I am the prelude to other world players moving to Indonesia." On 22 April, he scored his first goal from the header in a 2–2 draw over PS TNI. On 17 March 2018, Persib's club chief