Thibaut Courtois injured his ankle in training and will not play against Manchester United. This is why Asmir Begovic has been the first name on the substitutes list all season.
After making only a few EFL Cup and FA Cup appearances this year, Asmir Begovic will put his gloves on when the stakes could barely be higher. Chelsea went to Manchester with their lead atop the Premier League down to four points – and without Thibaut Courtois.
According to Kristof Terreur, Courtois is the latest Chelsea player to suffer an injury in training. Terreur reports Courtois injured his ankle and did not travel with the team. Antonio Conte did not mention this during his Friday press conference, so the injury either happened very recently or Conte was purposefully tight-lipped.
Asmir Begovic was the subject of many transfer rumours in the January window. A common refrain through the transfer period was that Antonio Conte would not risk the fate of his first season resting on Eduardo. This is precisely that situation Conte envisioned. A freak injury fells his top goalkeeper shortly before a critical matchup with Tottenham closing within four points of Chelsea. This is not Eduardo territory.
Massive blow for Chelsea. No Thibaut Courtois against Manchester Unitex today. He suffered an ankle injury in training. #mufc #cfc pic.twitter.com/GktWbhvka9
— Kristof Terreur (@kristofterreur) April 16, 2017
After playing regularly in a backup capacity last season Begovic was the victim of Thibaut Courtois’ good health, discipline and form this year. He deserved much more than a seat on the bench, and would be the starting keeper at all but a few Premier League clubs.
Bournemouth emerged as a possible transfer destination in January. Chelsea were not willing to transfer Begovic, though, unless they first signed his replacement. The Blues pursued Craig Gordon (Celtic) and Diego Lopez (Espanyol) to no avail. Without a like-for-like replacement, Begovic remained.
A backup goalkeeper must be ready to go at a moment’s notice, whether that is in the middle of the game or the middle of the week. The inability to maintain match sharpness combines with the necessity to match a starting keeper’s performance to make it one of the most difficult positions in sport. Asmir Begovic has proven repeatedly that he can go from 0-to-100 whenever he gets the call.
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He will have few bigger moments than today. Even if he has to play against Spurs in the FA Cup semifinal next week, he will at least have the full week to prepare mentally and tactically. If this is to be Begovic’s farewell run at Chelsea, we could hardly hope for a better story for him to write.