Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana has suffered a setback to his hopes of returning to the first team after limping off with a suspected knee injury during a friendly against Brentford today.
The centre-back sustained the problem while playing in a match staged behind closed doors as part of Chelsea’s build-up to the season resuming. They won the fixture 5-1 but the victory was overshadowed by what happened to Fofana and the west London club will now have to assess the extent of a possible injury.
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Head coach Graham Potter is expected to address the issue when he holds a pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the Bournemouth game.
Fofana, 22, returned to full training for Chelsea earlier this month after recovering from a knee injury sustained in October.
The Frenchman was involved in Chelsea’s training camp in Abu Dhabi while the World Cup was still taking place and revealed recently he was ready to play for the senior side again.
He missed out on a place in Didier Deschamps’ France World Cup squad after suffering an injury during Chelsea’s Champions League victory over AC Milan two months ago. He also opened the scoring in that match.
News of a potential injury would be a significant blow to both Chelsea and Fofana, who has made just four appearances since joining from Leicester City for £69.5 million in August.
Fellow centre-back Thiago Silva resumed first-team training for Chelsea on December 18 alongside England trio Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher.
Chelsea resume their campaign against Bournemouth in the Premier League on December 27.
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