Why Chelsea have 11 players out injured as under-pressure Mauricio Pochettino searches for answers

Many want answers over Chelsea’s injury problems which have pre-dates Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure at Stamford Bridge.

Since the end of 2021, Chelsea have suffered continued high-profile injuries to key players, which have hindered the likes of previous bosses Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter.

Chelsea’s bad luck with injuries has continued into Pochettino‘s reign at Stamford Bridge, beginning during pre-season which saw new arrival Christopher Nkunku sustain a knee injury and ruled out for several months.

Prior to their 1-0 defeat in the 1st leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, Chelsea’s injury report included 11 players.

• Benoit Badiashile – in full team training for reconditioning phase.
• Ben Chilwell – in full team training for reconditioning phase.
• Carney Chukwuemeka – in full team training for reconditioning phase.
• Christopher Nkunku – undergoing medical assessment.
• Trevoh Chalobah – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.
• Marc Cucurella – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.
• Wesley Fofana – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.
• Reece James – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.
• Romeo Lavia – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.
• Robert Sanchez – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.
• Lesley Ugochukwu – continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme.

On Chelsea’s bench against Boro, Armando Broja and Mykhailo Mudryk were the only senior outfield players on the eight-man, from a possible nine, bench.

Chelsea’s options are limited and it proved as they struggled, and failed, to find an answer to Hayden Hackney’s opener at the Riverside Stadium.

Pochettino’s job is safe for now whilst European qualification remains possible, as reported by Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph, but the Argentine is coming under increasing pressure from supporters, many of whom travelled to Middlesbrough voiced their discontent with boos at the full-tine whistle.

The Chelsea head coach was quizzed post-match about why the club has so many injuries. His response was: “What a difficult question. What a difficult answer. Bad luck because some injuries you cannot manage. It’s not about training, not about capacity, quality in all of the areas. That sometimes is the profile. Difficult answer because I think we are suffering too many injuries.

“I don’t want to say bad luck as it is an easy way to justify. But to be honest, so bad luck, look Nkunku, Fofana, Lavia, Reece James, too many. Situation is like this with 10 to 12 players out. Difficult when you don’t have all of the squad fit to work.

“Always every single week or every single game is about finding the right balance in the team. I don’t like to be a victim but it is true it is really tough.

“We are going to be positive. That is the first 90 minutes. We are losing one-nil and now we have the second leg, 90 minutes more at Stamford Bridge and we need to be positive.”