Chelsea will wait on tests to assess the extent of the damage to key defender Trevoh Chalobah, after he was carried off the field on a stretcher at the end of the Blues’ 3-0 Champions League defeat by PSG on Tuesday evening.
Chelsea lost 8-2 on aggregate, the heaviest-ever two-legged defeat for the club in Europe.
Mamadou Sarr, brought in for his debut in the competition with Reece James and Malo Gusto ruled out, made a horrible error to gift Khvicha Kvaratskhelia a goal after six minutes and things only got worse from there.
Bradley Barcola scored a magnificent second, only after Chalobah had failed to pick up the France international, before 19-year-old midfielder Senny Mayulu came off the bench to cap the home side’s humiliation.
And Chalobah’s evening got worse when he went down in clear discomfort in the final minutes of the match. The defender was carried off the pitch in apparent pain, and joins James and Gusto on the injury list, with what his manager Liam Rosenior suggested was sprained ankle ligaments.
Rosenior told TNT Sports: “I just asked the medical team, he’s got a high ankle sprain, so I’m praying it’s nothing too serious because of the way Trevoh’s been performing and we can’t afford to lose another defender at this moment.”
And Rosenior later added in his press conference: “I think he was really worried. I’ve just checked with the medical team. We’ll obviously scan and assess him tomorrow. We are hoping and praying that it’s not as bad as we first feared.”
Chelsea, after an initial good run of form when Rosenior arrived, have picked up only five points from their last five Premier League games, including a limp 1–0 home defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.
They sit sixth in the table and risk being overtaken by west London neighbours Brentford, who are just three points behind, if they cannot turn their form around — starting with a visit to Everton on Saturday.
“When you go through a difficult run, you have to make sure your habits are right. We have a really difficult game at Everton and we have to be at our best to get a result there,” Rosenior said after the PSG defeat.
