Chelsea suffered a major blow ahead of the FA Cup final when Benoit Badiachile was ruled out through injury.The centre-back produced his best performance of the season as he helped the Blues to a 3-1 win over Aston Villa in an FA Cup fourth round replay on Wednesday night. The west Londoners made it a disheartening stretch before the Frenchman went down injured with five minutes remaining.
Villa scored a consolation goal after Badiasele was sent off, while Moussa Diaby’s goal did not detract from Chelsea’s impressive performance. But Badiasil’s injury derailed a successful night, with manager Mauricio Pochettino admitting to reporters on Friday that the 22-year-old will be unavailable for Monday night’s game against Crystal Palace. At the time, Pochettino was unable to secure a return date for the 2023/24 season for the former Monaco man, who has struggled since a late start to the season with a hip injury. With just 10 starts and two substitute appearances in all competitions, those numbers are unlikely to increase any time soon.
According to the Evening Standard, Badiashile could be out for a month with a groin injury. In the short term, Badiasil will be ruled out of the Premier League clash with Crystal Palace on Monday and Manchester City on Saturday night. Crucially, Badiasil will miss the EFL Cup final against Liverpool on February 25. This is a clash at Wembley Stadium that will feature Chelsea’s biggest performance of the season.
Chelsea are 11th in the Premier League table and must win the competition or the FA Cup to advance to Europe in the 2023-2024 season.Thiago Silva looks set to return to partner Axel Dicusi, but Pochettino hopes Levi Colville and Trevor Chalobah can return to contention this week. Colville has missed the last four games with a thigh injury and Chalobah has missed the entire season with a hip problem.
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