£32m player on Chelsea’s pre-season tour is badly injured, he’s not trained yet

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One Chelsea star currently with the squad during the pre-season tour is still yet to actually begin training because of an injury problem.

Enzo Maresca, the new Blues head coach, is currently working with a large squad of players during the pre-season trip in the United States.

Chelsea kicked off their set of friendlies with a 2-2 draw against League One club Wrexham on Thursday. Next, they face Scottish giants Celtic this Saturday night.

There were 21 different players that got minutes into their legs versus Wrexham earlier this week. Speaking via Football.London in his post-match press conference, Maresca highlighted two “very important” Chelsea players.

However, Blues striker Nicolas Jackson didn’t feature in Chelsea’s matchday squad. The £32m man (The Guardian) appears to be nursing a quite significant ankle injury.

• READ MORE: The amount of times Nicolas Jackson was dispossessed last season, no other Chelsea player came close

Injured Nicolas Jackson isn’t even training yet

Jackson, 23, has travelled with the Chelsea squad to the US in this pre-season. However, it sounds like it may be a while still before he’s back playing again.

The centre-forward suffered an ankle injury at the start of June while on international duty with Senegal for World Cup qualifiers.

The Senegalese FA posted via their website last month: “The Senegalese Football Federation informs the public that player Nicolas Jackson injured his right ankle during the Senegal – DRC match on June 6, 2024. Radiology examinations (MRI) carried out on June 7 revealed a serious sprain of the ankle…”

Respected journalist Simon Phillips has provided an update on Jackson by claiming his ankle problem is bad, so there’s a chance he may not feature in pre-season games despite his presence in the US.

Phillips said via his Substack on Thursday: “Jackson is still injured… I heard the other day, well, one source said it was still quite a bad injury, but we don’t know how bad is bad. Obviously, he’s not trained yet. He hasn’t been involved in any training in the US and he wasn’t involved in the squad last night.

“So the source did say that there’s a chance he does feature in some of the games or one of the games, hopefully, but it doesn’t look good at the moment, I don’t think, because of the fact that he hasn’t even been in training yet. would suggest that we’d be lucky to see him on this tour.

“But we’ll have to wait and see and just hope for the best. Hope he recovers.”

It’s time for Marc Guiu to shine

The absence of Jackson right now could be a blessing in disguise for new Chelsea signing Marc Guiu.

18-year-old forward Guiu, who joined the Blues from Barcelona this summer, should be aiming to impress while the No 9 spot is vacant.

Chelsea fans praised Guiu’s debut performance against Wrexham, but we’d guess he’ll need more than a positive 45 minutes on this pre-season tour to earn a permanent spot in the first-team squad.

Jackson impressed last season when he emerged as Chelsea’s first-choice striker, but it does feel like he needs more competition next campaign. If Christopher Nkunku is going to play a bit deeper, perhaps Guiu is a great alternative in attack.