When Liam Delap went down injured against Fulham and had to be taken off, naturally, the Chelsea fans were left worried. Cole Palmer is already on the sidelines, with no clear date regarding his return. And now, another key player seems to be out for the foreseeable future. Initially, it was believed that it would take the Englishman six to eight weeks to recover from his hamstring injury. But now, there is further bad news.
Six to eight weeks was Enzo Maresca's estimation immediately after the match against Fulham. While that is a decent while, it is at least manageable, especially with international breaks. But now, there are fears that Chelsea could be without their summer signing for longer than that although the full extent of it is not known yet.
As reported by The Telegraph, Chelsea fear that the injury may rule Delap out for longer than initially thought. The striker requires another scan in the next 48 hours, which may rule him out for even longer than the predicted six to eight weeks. The Blues play six games between the next two international breaks, but the current belief is that he will miss far more than just those.
That's the last thing you want to hear about your players. Now, it remains to be seen what the extent of the issue is and how long exactly it will take for Delap to recover.
Worrying Liam Delap news as injury could be worse than thought
Chelsea have already cancelled the idea of sending Nicolas Jackson out on loan, even though he seems unhappy at being called back from Germany, as he had gone to undergo medicals before joining Bayern Munich. The idea of a permanent exit has not been completely ruled out yet though.
On the other hand, Chelsea seem to be keeping an eye on other strikers as well. One of them is Conrad Harder of Sporting CP.
Looking at Harder's style of play, he certainly has similarities to Delap. So, it is not hard to understand why the Blues might be interested in signing him as a replacement.