Tammy Abraham wins two London Football Awards as injuries stalk Chelsea

Tammy Abraham brought Chelsea back into the winners’ circle at the London Football Awards, becoming the first player to win two in a year. Meanwhile, the Blues receive more bad news on the youth injury front.

Tammy Abraham ended Chelsea’s shutout streak at the London Football Awards by winning the first double in LFA history. Abraham won Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year. Unsurprisingly, he was the first Blue ever nominated for the Young Player of the Year award, since in years past young Chelsea players would have to be nominated for the non-existent Loan Player of the Year award. Abraham beat teammates Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount, along with Bryan Mbuemo (Brentford) and Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal).

Abraham’s pair of trophies were the only ones coming back to Stamford Bridge from The Roundhouse. Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema beat Beth England, Erin Cuthbert and Magdalena Erikson for Women’s Player of the Year, while Brentford’s Thomas Frank earned more votes than Frank Lampard or Emma Hayes for London’s top manager.

The Blues did not have any nominees for Goalkeeper of the Year, and were recognized last year for Community Project of the Year for the club’s “Say No to Anti-Semitism” campaign.

Abraham received his LFA trophies while on an extended injury layoff from the team. Earlier on Thursday, another player who would have been nominated for at least Young Player of the Year if not for his own injury – Callum Hudson-Odoi – was the subject of more bad news for the Blues.

Reports came out on Thursday that Hudson-Odoi’s hamstring injury took a wrong turn in training, setting back his recovery and return to play. There had not been any definitive updates on his injury before Thursday, but all indications were that he was progressing towards a return early enough to still contribute to the end of the season, if not the end of the month.

Hudson-Odoi’s reinjury comes alongside Willian’s injury during Tuesday’s game against Liverpool. The Blues will likely face Everton with Pedro as their only healthy winger. Depending on the severity of Willian’s injury and how Christian Pulisic is progressing in his recovery, Pedro may be the lone winger against Aston Villa a week later, which would complicate things greatly against Bayern Munich a few days after that.

The cycle of injury and reinjury seems to be accelerating around Chelsea. Understanding the root causes and taking action on them should be as much a priority for the club as their transfer business this summer. There’s no point in buying the necessary players if they are going to spend significant portions of the season in the physio room.

The Blues are very much in the one step forward, 1-2 step back phase of this injury crisis. The London Football Awards recognized Tammy Abraham for his accomplishments in the first half of the season.

Chelsea need to take proactive steps to return him and the rest of his teammates to the pitch, and then keep them there.