{"id":149602,"date":"2025-09-11T18:54:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T18:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/149602\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T18:54:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T18:54:45","slug":"chelsea-suffer-major-injury-blow-ahead-of-brentford-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/149602\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea suffer major injury blow ahead of Brentford clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"166\" data-end=\"483\">Chelsea\u2019s luck with injuries continues to run thin as Dario Essugo has picked up a knock while away with Portugal\u2019s Under-21 squad. The midfielder, signed from Sporting for \u00a318.5 million in June, is yet to start a game for the Blues and now faces a race to be fit for Saturday\u2019s West London derby against Brentford.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-136197\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/imago1064907895-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\"  \/>Photo IMAGO<br \/>\nMidfield Depth Tested<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"513\" data-end=\"982\">Essugo is considered Chelsea\u2019s understudy to Moises Caicedo and his absence will stretch Enzo Maresca\u2019s midfield options. A statement from the Portuguese Football Federation confirmed the nature of the issue: \u201cThe Chelsea midfielder was excused from training due to a muscle problem in his right thigh, which he suffered after training. The athlete was evaluated by the Portuguese Football Federation\u2019s Health and Performance Department and was declared unavailable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"0\" width=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.carambo.la\/Pixel\/nfld18\/113181\/0\/1\/0\" style=\"display:block;width:0;height:0;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Injury Concerns Pile Up<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1014\" data-end=\"1273\">Chelsea are already without several key players, including Levi Colwill with an ACL tear and Cole Palmer with a groin problem. Liam Delap, Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile are also sidelined, leaving the squad looking thin at a crucial stage of the season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-129409\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/imago1060817115.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2493\" height=\"1665\"  \/>Photo IMAGO<br \/>\nMaresca\u2019s Selection Dilemma<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1309\" data-end=\"1550\">Essugo has made three substitute appearances, all coming at the Club World Cup against LAFC, ES Tunis and Palmeiras. He has been named on the bench in all three Premier League fixtures this season but is still waiting for his league debut.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1552\" data-end=\"1720\">Maresca must now decide whether to reshuffle his midfield options or rely more heavily on Caicedo, risking fatigue in a congested run of fixtures.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-129089\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/imago1060575622-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\"  \/>Photo IMAGO<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1722\" data-end=\"1889\">This latest setback underlines the mounting challenges Chelsea face in balancing squad fitness and performance during a campaign that has already tested their depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea\u2019s luck with injuries continues to run thin as Dario Essugo has picked up a knock while away&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[464,92411,92412,92413,92414,92415,92416,52529,92417,92418,92419,92420,92421,92422,92423,74088,92424,92425,92426,831,403,99],"class_list":["post-149602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-chelsea","tag-chelsea-acl-injury","tag-chelsea-brentford-clash","tag-chelsea-enzo-maresca","tag-chelsea-fitness-update","tag-chelsea-groin-injury","tag-chelsea-injury-blow","tag-chelsea-injury-news","tag-chelsea-midfield-crisis","tag-chelsea-midfielder-injury","tag-chelsea-moises-caicedo","tag-chelsea-player-availability","tag-chelsea-player-sidelined","tag-chelsea-premier-league","tag-chelsea-sporting-signing","tag-chelsea-squad-depth","tag-chelsea-squad-update","tag-chelsea-team-news","tag-chelsea-west-london-derby","tag-featured","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}