Chelsea centre-back Thiago Silva will miss more than a month due to the latest injury at Stamford Bridge. Silva joins Christian Pulisic, N’golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta, Armando Broja and Edouard Mendy as players out for an extended period of time.
Silva’s injury is to his knee, with the club claiming he tore ligaments in his left knee during a 2-0 loss to Tottenham on Sunday. As a result, the club’s doctors ruled the Brazilian out for an estimated six weeks. In the near future, that rules out the centre-back from key home games against Leeds in the Premier League and Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League.
Chelsea issued a statement stating that Thiago Silva will work closely with the club’s medical staff to return to fitness. The Guardian estimates that the time out is around six weeks.
Silva has been a mainstay in Graham Potter’s side this season, featuring in 21 of the 24 Premier League games. He started each of those 21. As a result, he has seen Chelsea struggle immensely this season. Since the start of 2023, Chelsea have one win in nine league games, a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Thiago Silva, Chelsea’s latest injury
Surely part of that struggle is because the aforementioned names are not available to Graham Potter. However, the defeats against Southampton and Fulham and the draws against Nottingham Forest and West Ham are inexcusable. It’s a dark day for Chelsea, especially considering the club spent record fees in the January transfer window to iron out the kinks.
However, the silver lining for Chelsea is that some of these injury problems are subsiding. Christian Pulisic, sidelined since early January, returned to Chelsea training before Tottenham’s defeat. The same goes for N’golo Kante, as both could be available for the club’s next game against Leeds.
Chelsea are desperate for points just to get back into European qualification. At the end of February, Chelsea is 14 points from the fourth and eight from the sixth, which would be enough for the Europa Conference League.
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