Chelsea accomplished a pretty nice win over Fulham, in the southwest London derby, this past weekend, and maybe that will start to generate some positive momentum for them. Up next is the second leg of their EFL Cup semifinal tie with Middlesbrough, which will occur one week from today. In the meantime, let’s go through that long Blues injury list, in two separate posts. We’ll cover Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Robert Sanchez here.
In the next post, we’ll focus on Reece James, Marc Cucurella and Lesley Ugochukwu. Ok, so let’s get this party started.
Lavia
The former Manchester City and Southampton star cost big money this summer, but he has played less than 50 minutes the entire season thus far. Lavia suffered an ankle injury on the Cobham training ground, which kept him out of action until Dec. 27, when he came on in the 58′ against Crystal Palace. He then suffered a thigh injury and no timetable has been set for his return.
Nkunku
It’s natural to always link Nkunku and Lavia, because he also got seriously injured in the summer, and thus didn’t make his competitive Chelsea debut until well into the season. A serious knee injury kept him out until Dec. 19 against Newcastle, where the striker came on as a sub. He played four games in total before suffering a hip injury on Dec. 30 against Luton Town. However, there are hopes that he could be passed fit enough to be in contention to feature next week.
Sanchez
The Blues No. 1 goalkeeper has been missing more than a month, as he injured his knee in the 2-0 loss to Everton on Dec. 10. The good news is that he’s back running outside on grass, so it should not be too long before he returns to training. Given that timeline, he should be in contention for selection again sometime in February. That is of course, barring any setbacks and/or new issues that might arise.
Fofana
The former Leicester City defender injured in his ACL in the preseason and is not expected to play at all this season.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.