Nicolas Jackson could miss up to five Premier League matches during the 2025/26 season because of international commitments.
The Senegal international is set to represent his country at the Africa Cup of Nations later in the year, with the tournament getting under way on December 21 and run until January 18, meaning it clashes with one of the most hectic periods in the Premier League season. With the Premier League fixture list now confirmed for the upcoming campaign, Jackson could be missing for some crucial matches in Chelsea's season.
The Blues' five league games while the AFCON is on are as follows: Aston Villa (home), Bournemouth (home), Manchester City (away), Fulham (away) and Brentford (home). Of course, when Jackson returns to England is dependant on how far Senegal progress in the international competition, but the 2021 champions tend to get far every two years.
Fortunately for Chelsea, they are not so light in the No.9 department nowadays. The Blues completed the £30million signing of Liam Delap earlier in the month, with the 22-year-old striker impressing on his debut this week - providing the assist for Enzo Fernandez's goal in the FIFA Club World Cup win over Los Angeles FC on Monday.
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Delap has been signed to add competition and support for Jackson, who has been relied on very strongly up until now. Enzo Maresca, speaking about his two No.9 options earlier in the week, is relishing having much more firepower in his arsenal for the 2025/26 season.
"Both are very good No.9s and hopefully both can score goals and get assists like today," Maresca said. "I prefer to have four or five players who score ten or twelve goals each rather one striker who scores 40 goals.
"Last year we tried to use different threats, different weapons; we also we had two or three months where we were without Nico and Marc [Guiu]. We tried to find different solutions but for sure, when you have two strikers like Nico and Liam, it's a nice feeling as a head coach. You know you can choose one of them and it's going to be a good choice."
Chelsea could even add a third No.9 this summer. football.london understands the Blues have a concrete interest in Eintracht Frankfurt attacker Hugo Ekitike, though there is a concern over how much the German club are demanding for the Frenchman's services.
Frankfurt are demanding €100million (£85million) for Ekitike this summer with Liverpool also interested in the 22-year-old striker. However, should the Bundesliga outfit refuse to budge on their asking price, then it is understood that Chelsea are likely to walk away from negotiations.