Medical Insider issues verdict on serious Wesley Fofana setback after Chelsea twist – ‘It’s going to hurt’
Wesley Fofana’s latest injury setback is “going to hurt” but is not too serious for Chelsea.
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.
Fofana has not featured in a competitive game for Chelsea since suffering a knee injury in their 3-0 win over AC Milan on 5 October.
The 22-year-old returned in a behind-closed-doors friendly this week but was forced off with another injury.
He revealed on Instagram on Tuesday (21 December) that it was nothing serious and will not even be out for a month.
“This is difficult to ascertain exactly what’s happened,” Dinnery told Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.
“It was a behind-closed-doors game with Brentford and it’s been reported as a knee problem. We’ve not seen the mechanism or been able to ascertain how it happened.
“The easy thing is to say it’s a reinjury or reoccurrence of that initial knee injury, that MCL issue that kept him out for a period and forced him out of France’s World Cup plans.
“We’re not able to say with any certainty whether that is the case. It could be something completely unrelated, we just don’t know.
“The player has posted an update via Instagram to say it’s nothing too serious and he shouldn’t be out for more than a month.
“It’s about your perception of serious. If you look at his teammates at Chelsea there are players who have been out for much longer with the likes of N’Golo Kante and Armando Broja.
“When you contextualise where he’s been and where some of his current teammates are, yes, a month on the sidelines is going to hurt but it’s not the end of the world and it’s not the end of his season. That’s the silver lining on the cloud.
“It’s not ideal. It means more time out and the opportunity to get him back up to speed will be limited. It may take a little bit longer to return to those pre-injury levels.”
In other news, there has been a big update on a Chelsea naming rights deal which is less than a Tottenham agreement.