- Fofana suffered fresh injury in Aston Villa win
- Chelsea defender missed all of 2023/24 with ACL tear
- Both he and head coach Maresca have discussed the issue
Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana has described a muscle injury suffered during Sunday's win over Aston Villa as "nothing serious", but he's still set to miss a number of games.
Fofana limped off 59 minutes into the game at Stamford Bridge, to be replaced by Benoit Badiashile. The former Leicester City centre-back has been a key part of Chelsea's resurgence under Enzo Maresca this season, striking up a regular partnership with Levi Colwill.
But seeing him leave the pitch early at the weekend was an understandable concern for fans - a player whose first two years at Chelsea were plagued by injuries, including all of 2023/24.
Taking to social media, Fofana himself marked it down as: "A slight muscle warning, as often happens after long injuries, nothing serious, the body is adjusting."
Maresca's assessment of the situation was a little more grave, given that even a relatively short absence somewhere between three and five weeks could mean missing a lot of games at the busiest time of the football calendar.
"Unfortunately it is bad news. It is a hamstring problem and these kind of things usually require at least three, four or five weeks, but in this moment that means we lose him for ten or 12 games," Maresca explained during his post-match press conference.
"The way he was playing, it's a big loss for us, but we have more players and we will try to find a solution. It's a big loss because he's doing fantastic, but it's normal when you play this amount of games unfortunately. Fortunately, it's his first injury this season, and we are going to find a solution."
In the remainder of December alone, Chelsea face eight games across the Premier League and Conference League, including an away trip to Kazakhstan. The Blues will face a further five games in January, with the Premier League abandoning a winter break this season.
