Chelsea have cancelled Nicolas Jackson’s loan move to Bayern Munich after Liam Delap was ruled out for “six to eight weeks” following their controversial 2-0 win over Fulham at Stamford Bridge, the PA news agency understands.
Delap limped off with a hamstring problem 13 minutes into the west London derby, and after head coach Enzo Maresca initially refused to rule out the club reentering the transfer market with just over 48 hours of the window remaining, the decision has been taken to inform Bayern that Jackson will be staying.
However, PA understands that the 24-year-old, who has already landed in Germany, is furious with the club’s U-turn.
Earlier on Saturday, Christopher Nkunku’s £36million move to AC Milan was confirmed, meaning Maresca would have been left with summer signing Joao Pedro as his only fit striker.
A year-long loan for Jackson with an option for the Bundesliga champions to buy for £56m had been agreed before the match.
“Liam’s injury doesn’t look good,” said Maresca. “He was full speed, hamstring, so that requires weeks.
“When you have two strikers it’s enough. When one of them is injured for weeks, probably it’s not enough. Today we played more than an hour with Tyrique (George), he did brilliant.
“When you have two proper nines, it’s enough.”
A bad-tempered match – won though a header from Pedro late in the first half and penalty after the break from Enzo Fernandez – turned on a decision in the first half to disallow what had looked a fine goal from 18-year-old Josh King for Fulham.
The decision incensed Fulham boss Marco Silva, whose display of feelings on the touchline was impossible to misinterpret.
Referee Robert Jones, watching on the pitchside VAR screen, judged there had been a “careless challenge” on Trevoh Chalobah by Rodrigo Muniz in the build-up, but that was not the way Silva saw it.
“Unbelievable the goal was disallowed,” said Silva, who was also unhappy with the amount of stoppage time at the end of the first half in which Chelsea scored.
“After the second corner it was already nine minutes of extra-time. The game didn’t stop during the eight minutes, so the game should be stopped after the first corner.”
There was further controversy with the award of Chelsea’s penalty for handball against Ryan Sessegnon.
“Yes it’s handball from Sess, but before that moment you can find easy two or three fouls for ourselves,” said Silva.
“Our players went with the referee to the screen and they were laughing. A stamp on Alex Iwobi, handball from Joao Pedro and the pushing on Joachim (Andersen).
“It’s the same VAR that in the first half found something unbelievable like a stamp from Rodrigo. The same people didn’t see a stamp on Iwobi. I don’t understand the direction that it’s going.”
