This past weekend saw Chelsea FC manager Enzo Maresca provide updates on a few of a his injured players, including the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu and Romeo Lavia. Let’s get you caught up on all of them, starting with the two strikers. I guess it’s a good thing that Christopher Nkunku stuck around this January transfer window, after he was strongly linked with a move away.
That’s because Marc Guiu is set for a long spell on the sidelines, and Nicolas Jackson could miss the next match or two, and then, we’ll see.
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“Could be [available on Saturday] but could also be a risk,” Maresca said of Jackson’s thigh injury. “We will see, but it doesn’t look like a long injury.” Put him in the “strong doubt” category for this one. As for Guiu, Maresca said the following, in regards to the forward’s groin injury:
“We are still waiting. It doesn’t look like a short injury; it looks like a long injury. Exactly how long, I don’t know. Probably weeks/months, yes.”
So can rule him out until around April, at the very least, right now.
As for Lavia, well, the narrative seems to have shifted from the “day-to-day/we’ll see/short-term/late fitness test” to the long-term category. I mean who could have seen that coming, right? With this guy’s injury history, of course this was to be expected. Otherwise the rest of the Chelsea team news situation remains the same.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.