CHELSEA HAVE BEEN dealt another big injury blow with confirmation that forward Christopher Nkunku will be sidelined for up to a month.
The France international, who missed Chelsea’s first 17 top-flight fixtures this term due to a knee issue, is set for another extended lay-off as a result of an unspecified injury sustained in the Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool over the weekend.
“We need to see and evaluate every day but at the moment, it’s three or four weeks maybe he’s out, we hope no more,” said Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Marc Cucurella, Thiago Silva, Benoit Badiashile, Carney Chukwuemeka, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu will also be absent for Wednesday’s FA Cup clash with Leeds United.
Pochettino is confident he retains the backing of Chelsea’s owners but conceded his future was out of his hands after defeat in the Carabao Cup final increased scrutiny of his position.
The under-fire Argentinian said he had supportive conversations with the club’s co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali following Sunday’s 1-0 extra-time loss to Liverpool.
Defeat at Wembley sparked further criticism of Pochettino and his expensively-assembled squad – including scathing comments from Gary Neville – as they failed to overcome inexperienced rivals who were missing a host of star names.
Chelsea, who are languishing in 11th place in the Premier League and sit closer to the relegation zone than the top four, return to action tomorrow evening at home to Championship club Leeds in the FA Cup fifth round.
“I said hello to the owners when I saw them in the stadium and after (the final) I met Behdad and we were talking,” said Blues boss Pochettino, who has lost forward Christopher Nkunku to another injury.
“We were sharing our opinions about the game and the opportunity we missed to win a trophy because I think we played really well during the 90 minutes.
“We created the best chances, we were not clinical enough but that is what has happened since the beginning of the season.
“They (the owners) showed their support and after the game, Todd sent a nice message.”
Asked if he would be given time to turn things around, Pochettino replied: “It’s not in my hands. We have a very good relationship with the owners, with the sporting director.
“It’s up to them to trust or not. It’s not the coach’s decision.”
Sky Sports pundit Neville labelled Chelsea “blue billion pound bottle jobs” following their cup final failure.
Pochettino believes the criticism is unfair but insists he respects the opinions of the media and former professionals.
The 51-year-old has been encouraged by the response of his under-performing players as they seek to keep alive their last chance of lifting silverware this season.
“I think we are all tired because always when you lose a final, it’s not easy to recover,” he said.
“But I am so happy because they are really focused and they move forward. If you ask all the players if they want to be involved tomorrow in the game, they spoke revenge.
“Of course (I am) disappointed because we cannot win the Carabao Cup but we need to move on because we need to compete tomorrow.
“It wasn’t difficult (to lift the players) because we cannot wait. Now we need to get the spirits up and move on and be ready for tomorrow because it’s another competition where we want to go until the end.”
