Mauricio Pochetttino has revealed that record-signing Moises Caicedo is missing from their trip to the Vitality Stadium after picking up an injury, taking their walking wounded to a massive 12 players already this season.
The 21-year-old only arrived at the club in the final weeks of the summer transfer window, and has suffered a difficult start to his Blues career.
Giving away a penalty on his debut, he endured another tough test against Nottingham Forest and now could be sidelined for the forseeable future.
That is thanks to a ‘knock’ on his knee, which has seen him miss the clash with Bournemouth and will hand Lesley Ogochukwu handed his Blues debut in midfield against the Cherries.
Speaking ahead of the game, Pochettino revealed that the club still needed to ‘assess’ the Ecuador midfielder, who played all of both matches while on international duty.
“Caicedo arrived back with a knock in his knee”, the Chelsea boss explained.
It means that Chelsea are without a full starting XI of players, with all of Marcos Bettinelli, Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku, Carney Chukwuemeka, Noni Madueke and Armando Broja all out with various issues and Benoit Badiashile not yet considered fit enough to be part of the first team squad despite returning to first team training.
More concerning is the number of knee injuries that Chelsea have suffered already this season, which has already seen Fofana and Nkunku sidelined and was also the injury that has kept Armando Broja sidelined since December 2022.
