Hope rises for Chalobah injury reportedly not serious

 

Trevoh Chalobah’s hamstring injury is reportedly not as bad as first feared and he could return to face Everton next week.

The 22-year-old suffered the problem in last week’s 2-1 victory at Watford, and boss Thomas Tuchel admitted after the game he was ‘most worried’ about his injury.

But The Athletic claim the injury is not as serious as initially thought and that he is already targeting a possible return for the home game against Everton on Thursday, December 16.

The report adds Chalobah did not train ahead of Wednesday night’s closing Champions League Group H match against Zenit St Petersburg, but claim he is believed to be close to a return.

Chalobah was deployed in central midfield at Vicarage Road and suddenly pulled up in serious pain just before the hour mark after trying to stop a Watford counter-attack in its tracks.

The Blues academy product received lengthy treatment on the field before limping off to be replaced by Hakim Ziyech, who scored the winner against the Hornets.

Chalobah is not the only Blues player who will miss the trip to Russia, with N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Ben Chilwell also not training due to injury.

The Frenchman suffered a knee injury against Juventus last month, the same game in which left-back Chilwell suffered a partial ACL tear. Meanwhile, Croatian midfielder Kovacic has been out since October with a hamstring injury.

READ ALSOChelsea stepping up bumper contract offer for Gavi

However, there was some positive news with Kai Havertz training on Tuesday, having gone off with an injury at half-time in the defeat by West Ham on Saturday.

Chalobah  who signed a new four-and-a-half-year deal at Stamford Bridge last month  has made 14 appearances for his club across all competitions in 2021-22.

As well as a number of impressive defensive displays, he has also been a goalscoring threat, netting three goals against Crystal Palace, Southampton and Juventus.