It’s that funny period between the end of the season and the start of the Euros, and so there’s not much space for much big news to develop – it’s more a case of tying up the loose ends of last season.
A major one of those for Chelsea is the injury crisis that was sparked by Wesley Fofana’s season ending injury suffered before the team had even gone on their preseason tour, and has kept him out ever since. Along the way, about half the squad missed significant time one way or the other, but by the end of the campaign they were mostly back, and we’re now down to basically just Fofana still hurt.
The Frenchman is on his way back though, and it won’t be long before we see him in action again. Simon Phillips has a man on the inside when it comes to Fofana’s camp, and he’s given us more important updates this morning.
Mental struggles at an end
There’s talk of how much the player struggled mentally after going through what was effectively a third consecutive ruined season: “he tried to stay as upbeat as possible, but the frustrations of not being able to play and not being able to help his team when they were struggling on the pitch really boiled up for him,” Phillips explained.
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel: he is now “ready to report for preseason.” Effectively, while his match fitness will be at rock bottom and he will need to be eased back in with a different pattern to his teammates, medically he’s ready to go. The ligaments are healed and built up sufficiently for him to take part, and so the mental burden for him should ease from this point as he is able to at least join in with his teammates in the buildup to next season.
