Chelsea flop OUT of US tour as transfer decision questioned

Tom Weber

• Updated: 17 Jul 2023 19:32 BST
• 3 min read

Wesley Fofana has suffered yet another knee injury and it makes you wonder whether the Blues did their due diligence when signing the Frenchman.

A talented young defender with plenty of upside, on the face of it, it's not hard to see why Chelsea spent €80.4 million to sign Fofana from Leicester last year as part of Todd Boehly's mind-boggling spending spree.

Yet upon closer inspection, it was predictable, to say the least, that this move had a slim chance of ever working out and justifying the money spent. Despite being just 22 years of age, Fofana already has a lengthy injury history of recurring knee problems.

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It all started during his Saint-Etienne days. In October 2019, he suffered his first knee injury after turning professional. Another one would follow shortly after he recovered from the first.

At Leicester, the trend continued. In fact, Fofana has had at least one knee/leg injury in every season of still-young career. In 2021/22, he was unavailable for almost the entire campaign because of a fibula fracture.

Following his Chelsea switch, knee problems caused him to be sidelined for 20 games for the Blues and now, he's injured once again.

Set to miss US tour

The extent of his latest ailment is not yet known, but from the fact that he is set to miss Chelsea's entire US tour - which will end in early August - it can be gleaned that it's likely more than just a slight knock.

Tactics analyst Jon Mackenzie questioned whether Chelsea did their due diligence when signing Fofana in a recent video on the Tifo YouTube channel. While it was never guaranteed that the defender would again suffer a knee injury, the probability of it happening was quite high.

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Spending €80m on Fofana was a gamble that has thus far not paid off for Chelsea.