It’s a bad time for injuries to start piling up at Chelsea

It’s not even been two weeks since Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel mentioned players were playing too much. The comment at the time was mainly about international managers relying on the same players for World Cup qualifying and Nations League, and not about Tuchel himself relying on certain players.

Since then, Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, and now Mateo Kovacic have gotten injuries that will see them out for weeks. Many others missed midweek matches because of more minor injuries, but injuries nonetheless. Tuchel took some blame for Kovacic being overplayed which was big of him. Still, if he saw players being overplayed, it would be nice if he was more proactive about his own concerns.

This is a bad time for the injuries to be piling up at Chelsea. If they are bad now before winter hits, things may only get worse. It also doesn’t help that it becomes a self sustaining cycle.

See, if one player is injured that means another has to start picking up those minutes in addition to what they would have already been getting. One overplayed player injured means someone else has to be overplayed. That increases their chance of injury and could create a cycle of one player getting fit just as another comes out.

It’s the nature of some of the injuries that is a concern as well. Werner and Kovacic both have hamstring injuries which are typical overuse injuries. Not only that, they are tricky to move past for some. These things are expected over the course of the season, but that they are starting to pile up now in October is a concern.

Things only get more crowded from here. After this next international break, there will be nearly three months of non stop, two or three games a week football in the worst weather of the year. We commonly call it the winter slog because that is exactly what it is. It’s broken successful Chelsea teams before (see the drop off of Frank Lampard, Maurizio Sarri, and Antonio Conte in recent seasons right as December/January came). It’s a period where there will be only more injuries, not less.

This current slate of matches is on the light side but the bigger concern is that these issues will get worse. Chelsea has a large squad and Tuchel’s rotated well, but there are still these overuse injuries. And the players filling in will also be overused. And the matches will keep coming and coming.

Mind, other top teams are going to face these same issues. But when winning silverware comes down to fine margins, it is frustrating to lose players like this. Sometimes injuries happen, but too many of these could have been avoided.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek or N’Golo Kante can fill in for Kovacic, but both are injury prone as of late. Kai Havertz can fill in for the strikers, though for how long remains to be seen. The injuries will test Chelsea’s title credentials as already mentioned, but this may get worse before it gets better.