Drogba to rejoin Ivory Coast squad on Monday

Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba is due to rejoin his team-mates at their training camp in the Swiss Alps on Monday following surgery on his broken forearm, the Ivorian football federation said.

Doctors operated on the fracture at a hospital in the Swiss capital Bern on Saturday, after the Chelsea player was hurt during the Ivorians’ 2-0 win over Japan in a friendly the day before.

The federation said on its website that Drogba — who was pictured with his right forearm and elbow in a sling and clad in a plaster cast — “will this Monday rejoin the Ivorian delegation at its base at the Golf Hotel above Saanenmoeser”.

The 32-year-old striker is due to cheer on his team-mates from the sidelines of a final warm-up match against a Swiss second division club at Nyon on Tuesday, it added.

The federation said that the first results of the operation had been “extremely encouraging” and that there were high hopes that he would recover swiftly.

Drogba hopes to get back to fitness within ten days to enable him to play in Ivory Coast’s Group G opener with Portugal on June 15.

Under FIFA rules, a replacement can be drafted in until the day before a team’s first game.

The Ivorian squad is due to fly out to South Africa on Wednesday.

Ivory Coast will play in Group G, where they will also face Brazil and North Korea.