Insider: Raheem Sterling has new injury ‘different to what he told Chelsea staff’
The inconclusive test from Raheem Sterling’s hamstring injury means Chelsea should be extra cautious when it comes to his return.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Sterling suffered a hamstring injury early on during Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Man City in the Premier League on Thursday evening.
The Athletic reported on Monday (9 January) that the 28-year-old will have to undergo a second scan on his hamstring after the first returned “inconclusive”.
Graham Potter now faces an anxious wait to uncover the severity of Sterling’s injury, with the Blues boss already without Reece James, Christian Pulisic, N’Golo Kante and several other injured stars.
Dinnery believes Chelsea will want to give Sterling extra time off as his explosiveness and pace puts him at high risk of re-injury.
“Sometimes baseline testing and evaluations don’t always correlate with what the player is telling you,” Dinnery told Football Insider‘s Sean Fisher.
“Raheem Sterling picked up his injury through an attempted backheel and clearly felt a sensation or discomfort that worried him.
“That initial scan was done fairly quickly and came back inconclusive, potentially because it doesn’t relate to what Raheem Sterling told medical staff.
“So they may want to hold back a little bit, give him a few extra days to relax and then reevaluate because hamstring injuries are ones that you really need to be careful with.
“Particularly with a player like Raheem Sterling who relies on fast and explosive bursts of pace and changes of direction.
“There’s a lot of stress and strain going through those hamstrings when he does that, so Chelsea should take extra caution in case of re-injury.“
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