Benoit Badiashile injured himself at the end of our game against Aston Villa last week, but the club had yet to conduct any scans on the defender before Mauricio Pochettino took his press conference on Friday.
That meant we’ve largely been in the dark about Badiashile’s status, until now. The well connected Nizaar Kinsella clearly has some contacts at the club, and he’s claimed that the defender faces a month on the sidelines in his piece in the Evening Standard today.
That puts him out of tonight’s game (obviously) but also some big matches including the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at the end of this month. We were really hoping to have him back and fit by then.
It’s a nasty blow because Badiashile played well, and the team looked so much more aggressive and dangerous with him partnering Axel Disasi in the middle and Thiago Silva on the bench.
Now it looks almost inevitable that Silva comes back in, and Chelsea return to their previous setup at the back.