Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca confirmed that Liam Delap’s hamstring injury may rule him out for up to two months, adding to the club’s growing shortage of strikers.
The 21-year-old forward was forced off just 15 minutes into the Blues’ 2-0 victory over Fulham on Saturday, clutching his hamstring before being replaced by Tyrique George.
The setback comes on the same day Nicolas Jackson was allowed to travel to Germany to finalise a loan move to Bayern Munich, while Christopher Nkunku’s transfer to AC Milan was completed on Friday.
As a result, Chelsea could now be left with only Joao Pedro available as their sole senior striker for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Maresca admitted the outlook did not look positive:
“Hamstring, it was full speed,” the Italian explained.
“Hopefully it’s not long, but this kind of case, this kind of injury, it always can be six, eight weeks.”
The Chelsea boss later expanded on the situation in his post-match press conference, conceding that the club may need to consider attacking reinforcements before the transfer deadline closes at 7pm on Monday.
“Liam’s injury doesn’t look good in terms of, he was full speed, hamstring, so that requires, like always, weeks,” he said.
“And then in terms of another striker, to be honest, we just finished the game from the changing room and came here for the press conference. So now after, when we finish, we’re going to sit and we’ll see if we take any decision. That’s all.”
