Four high potential players Chelsea lost to injury and loans

Chelsea has put a lot of hope into different players over the years, only to see injury steal their promise away. Subsequent loans did not help.

Roughly beginning with Michael Emenalo’s tenor as technical director, Chelsea had a habit of snapping of nearly every promising wonder kid they could get their hands on. Most were subsequently sent out on loan to develop and a few continued to show the promise expected.

Then injuries happened. Some major, others minor that simply spiraled. Regardless, these players struggle to rebound and restart where they left off. Many would simply see loan after loan before Chelsea finally sold them.

This list is certainly not exhaustive. Marco van Ginkel is perhaps one of the highest profile players to be injured and struggle to return. But the four players included here were all very highly regarded before they got lost to their injuries and trapped in the loan army. While players like Kurt Zouma have shown that the cycle can be broken, others like Ruben Loftus-Cheek are too early in the process to know how they will rebound. These four are simply cases of what could have been that hopefully Loftus-Cheek can avoid adding his name to.

1. Lucas Piazon

There is perhaps no more famous of a case of high potential players derailed by injury and constant loans than Piazon. He came at a time when most big clubs were looking to snap up their own Neymar before the price got ridiculous. Initially, Piazon very much looked like that sure bet of a player.

Piazon played very little for Chelsea before his first loan. The club ambitiously sent him to Malaga in La Liga which proved to be just a little too much for the Brazilian. The club took a step back to their favorite destination in Vitesse which worked wonders.

After that things went quite well for Piazon. A successful loan at Frankfurt was followed by a strange yet successful back step to Reading. Fulham then snapped Piazon up next and while he did well, there remained no place for him at Chelsea.

Then his injury happened. He fractured his ankle and spent a long spell on the sidelines. He eventually returned to action for Fulham before seeing his way Italy. Following that, he remained at Chelsea under Maurizio Sarri where it appeared he would finally get a chance. It never happened and he was loaned out once again.

Piazon had many false dawns and close calls, but at this point it appears that Chelsea is simply killing time before moving him along. He never fulfilled his early promise, but he got very close several times and never quit working towards his goals.