Medical insider: Chelsea braced to deal with Mateo Kovacic issue ‘all season’
Chelsea cannot afford the luxury of resting Mateo Kovacic for an extended period – but he may sit out games against lesser opposition for the rest of the campaign.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis.
Kovacic, 28, has started just two of Chelsea’s opening seven games this term, and he is yet to stay on the pitch for more than 70 minutes.
The Croatian midfielder, who now has a new manager following Graham Potter’s appointment, is currently struggling with a knee problem.
As quoted by the Daily Mail last Friday (2 September), now-ex-boss Thomas Tuchel said: “hopefully he can make it without surgery”.
Injury analyst Dr Raj Brar wrote on Twitter the following day that Kovacic “might have to be load managed all season”.
Dinnery echoed Dr Brar’s analysis.
“I don’t think he will be taken out of the limelight entirely,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“We know he missed a chunk of pre-season because of that ongoing niggling knee problem. Ultimately, he was training individually and missed a lot of non-competitive games.
“In terms of load management and handling him between games, we need to bear in mind that it isn’t always going to be an ideal situation.
“If Tuchel was still in charge, Kovacic may have been considered one of those players that he could not afford to rest given that he said they were lacking in mental fortitude and steeliness. Kovacic ticks all of those boxes,
“So, he’s a player you want in your starting XI. But what Raj Brar means is that they need to be aware of the situation, aware of the risk of suffering a setback.
“Against the so-called lesser teams where you would expect Chelsea to get a result, we may well see Kovacic’s minutes managed.”
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