Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has raised doubt over whether Christipher Nkunku will play for the club again this season due to his recovery from injury “taking longer than expected”.
Nkunku’s long-awaited transfer from RB Leipzig was completed last summer for £52m, but a knee injury in pre-season required surgery and the Frenchman didn’t make his debut until 19 December. But, after ten appearances, he hasn’t been seen again since February’s Carabao Cup final.
With so little of the season left and Nkunku still not back in training or even with a targeted date for that to happen, there is a distinct possibility that he won’t be ready to play again until 2024/25.
“I don’t know. Still, we don’t know,” Pochettino said on Wednesday when discussing the player’s current fitness status. “At the moment, we do not know when it is possible for him to start training with the team. At the moment, he is not training with us.
“[A setback] did not happen. I have no information about that. His recovery is taking longer than we expected. That was after the [Carabao Cup] final. He played in the final with a problem that we did not know about and found after the game.
“There are different circumstances that affect things. It is not only him. Too many players have suffered injuries this season. We hope he can be involved again quickly…as soon as possible. It will be really good if he can join the team again before the end of the season. We hope that will happen.”
Only £53m Romeo Lavia, who has also had a debut season at Chelsea ravaged by injury, and £115m Moises Caicedo cost more than Nkunku of all the club’s summer buys, with his absence arguably the biggest loss to the team.
He had racked up 87 combined goals and assists in 88 games across his final two years with Leipzig and Chelsea‘s relative lack of firepower compared to teams in the top half of the table has been a significant factor in their struggles to compete.
READ THE LATEST CHELSEA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP
