Chelsea have been handed another potentially major blow at centre-back after Trevoh Chalobah was taken off with a possible injury during their pre-season friendly against AC Milan.
The Englishman went down after a collision and was unable to continue.
Enzo Maresca has already seen his defensive options take a hit with Levi Colwill set to miss the majority of the 2025/26 season due to a serious knee injury that required surgery to fix. Upon his exit from the game, the 26-year-old was spotted limping round to the bench.
Also losing Chalobah so close to the start of the new campaign will almost certainly result in a new defender being targeted with Maresca suggesting as such even when it was only Colwill that would be unavailable.
“It’s a priority that we strengthen the defence,” he boldly admitted after Chelsea’s 2-0 win vs Bayer Leverkusen. “This is because Levi is a fantastic player.
“What we achieved last season is because of him. “He’s played all the games with me, I love him, we’re going to miss him.”
The recent arrival of left-footed defender Jorrel Hato could help Chelsea cope without Colwill while the likes of Tosin Adarabioyo, Josh Acheampong, Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga and Aaron Anselmino are all currently available. The latter trio are expected to depart Stamford Bridge, however.
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Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana meanwhile, are expected to stay but regular injury problems for both could cause problems later in the campaign if they are relied upon.
If Chelsea do bring in another centre-back Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi would be the most likelyc candidate, but the Telegraph have claimed that Liverpool are the favourites to sign him with the Blues prioritising other transfer targets.
RB Leipzig star Xavi Simons and Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho are the players being actively pursued by Chelsea with talks ongoing for both in separate deals.
Those two moves are expected to go through and therefore they will join Liam Delap, Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Hato as summer arrivals.
Marquee exits have also been sanctioned with Noni Madueke, Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Djorde Petrovic, Armando Broja and Lesley Ugochukwu among the names to depart for sizeable fees.
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