Enzo Maresca gives injury update on five Chelsea players ahead of Crystal Palace game
Chelsea make the short trip across London this weekend to take on rivals Crystal Palace, but they’ll travel to Selhurst Park without several first-team players in the squad.
Chelsea are without a win in their last three games going into the Palace match, which is a first for them this season.
Enzo Maresca has been a major success so far during his first six months as the Blues manager, but his side needs to respond to picking up one point from their previous three matches in the Premier League.
Chelsea injury update ahead of Crystal Palace
Chelsea boss Maresca has provided an injury update on five first-team stars in his pre-match press conference for the Palace trip.
Maresca said via Chelsea’s YouTube channel: “Reece [James] is back already from the last game. Romeo [Lavia] is very close. He’s started to work with us. Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] is still out. Unfortunately, Wes [Fofana] will be out for a very long time. Benoit [Badiashile] will be out at least until February.”
He later added on Fofana: “Unfortunately he could be out for the season, yeah. We don’t know exactly if it’s for the entire season, but he could be out for part of the season… We realised it was worse than we thought at the beginning. It is hamstring and unfortunately we are going to lose him for a while.”
The positive news is that club captain Reece James is fit and available to face Palace. This comes after he was an unused substitute in Monday’s league defeat away to Ipswich.
Romeo Lavia is on the verge of returning to action, while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is still unavailable. Lavia returned to Chelsea training this week, so it’s good news to hear the midfielder is nearly fit agian.
The big news from Friday’s press conference is that centre-backs Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile face even longer on the sidelines. In particular, Maresca made the concerning claim that Fofana could end up missing the rest of the season with his hamstring problem.
Wesley Fofana can’t catch a break
The £70m that Chelsea spent to sign Fofana from Leicester City back in the summer of 2022 is looking increasingly more and more like a mistake.
When he’s fit and firing, the 24-year-old Frenchman is a supremely talented defender. However, the Blues simply can’t rely on him because of his dreadful record with injury. The fact that he’s only made 32 appearances in two and a half years at the club is alarming.
| Season | Appearances |
| 2022/23 | 20 |
| 2023/24 | 0 |
| 2024/25 | 12 |
Martin Keown thought Chelsea’s Fofana was fulfilling his potential after some impressive performances earlier this season in Maresca’s system, but another long-term injury has derailed his progress in West London.
If the Blues are realistic, they need to go out and sign a new central defender to partner Levi Colwill.
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