Enzo Maresca is poised to welcome Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana back against Southampton (Image: Getty)
manager will reportedly include in his matchday squad tonight (Tuesday).
There were fears that the French defender would miss the rest of the season after suffering a hamstring injury in December. But he returned to training months ahead of schedule and is now ready to be phased back into competitive action.
According to , Fofana will be named in the squad for ‘s visit to Stamford Bridge.
It is unclear whether he will start the game so soon after recovering, but the Blues have been left light at the back with Benoit Badiashile and Trevoh Chalobah both in the treatment room.
Fofana has suffered a string of injury problems since completing a move from Leicester City to in 2022.
The centre-back has made just 27 Premier League appearances in nearly three years, and he missed the entirety of the 2023/24 campaign.
There had been conflicting reports around Fofana’s recovery period after he was subbed off in the home win over Aston Villa on December 1. Just after the New Year, Maresca publicly stated that he was in danger of missing the rest of the season.
Per screenshots which circulated on social media, however, Fofana appeared to message a fan page saying: “That is not true. I am not out for the rest of the season. I don’t know why he said that. I will be back in 4-6 weeks.”
Wesley Fofana (left) has made a speedy recovery from a serious hamstring problem (Image: Getty)
With his comeback now firmly on the cards, the player’s prediction was not far off, and Maresca is welcoming him back three months earlier than expected. But as injury problems in defence subside, they remain a problem at the top end of the pitch.
Strikers Nicolas Jackson and are still ruled out alongside injured winger Noni Madueke and the suspended Mykhaylo Mudryk.
Maresca experimented with through the middle in Saturday’s defeat to Aston Villa, and the manager has suggested that he will be given another crack after setting up Enzo Fernandez for the Blues’ only goal.
“[He] could be a good option,” said the Italian. “We tried with Pedro days before the [Villa] game and we saw he could do that. It was a positive one. The performance in general was positive.”
A run of three defeats in four Premier League games has seen slip out of the Champions League places. Maresca will be desperate to fight his way back in over the final 12 matches of the campaign.