Chelsea defender Levi Colwill is no stranger to setbacks, with the 22-year-old dealing with one right now.
Colwill sustained an ACL injury during pre-season training and is expected to miss the majority of the 2025/26 campaign.
Chelsea believe Jorrel Hato can cover for Colwill, while Enzo Maresca still has other natural centre-halves.
The Englishman will be gutted about missing most of Chelsea‘s season, but you can trust him to overcome this latest disappointment.
Chelsea youngster Levi Colwill scored own goal in 2022 Championship play-off final
Colwill has recovered from a major setback before, so Chelsea fans can be confident that this ACL injury will not destroy their academy graduate.
In 2022, Colwill scored an own goal in the Championship play-off final between Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest.
The night before, the Englishman would have been dreaming about making a goal-line clearance to send Huddersfield, where he spent the season on loan, to the Premier League.
Instead, he had to endure what is every defender’s worst nightmare: scoring an own goal with everyone watching.
Colwill’s career could have gone in any direction after that moment. Thankfully for Chelsea, he recovered and managed to stay on the right path, impressing on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion the following season.
Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel spoke about Colwill last week, tipping him to become a world-class defender in the near future.
Levi Colwill animated during Huddersfield Town v Luton Town
Photo by Ben Early/Getty Images
Levi Colwill now one of Chelsea’s most important players
Ultimately, Colwill never let what happened to him at Wembley play on his mind. He quickly moved on from it and is now one of the most important players at Stamford Bridge.
After his ACL injury, Maresca made it clear that, other than Tosin Adarabioyo, no one else in Chelsea’s squad can do what Colwill does at the back.
“When we build, we build with Levi in the middle,” the Chelsea boss said in a press conference (via The Independent) in August. “Last year we played 64 games and we played all 64 games with either Levi or Tosin [Adarabioyo in the middle].
“Now Levi is out. The only other one that he can do that job well is Tosin.”
Chelsea are going to be without Colwill for a while, but when the England international is back, he should be ready to make an impact again.