Levi Colwill hasn’t been able to play a single minute for Chelsea this season, but that hasn’t stopped Joe Cole from assessing his potential.
The 22-year-old is currently out of action for the entire season due to suffering a severe ACL injury, which has impacted Enzo Maresca’s team.
Chelsea have struggled defensively throughout the 2025-26 campaign, with only Manchester United conceding more than them in the top half of the Premier League this season.
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The timing of his injury couldn’t have been worse from an individual perspective, either. At the end of last season, Colwill was starting to find his groove, emerging as a true leader within the group.
Levi Colwill applauding the Chelsea fans
Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Joe Cole believes Levi Colwill can reach John Terry’s level at Chelsea
Colwill’s absence this season has been an obvious blow for Chelsea, given that he was a regular part of the starting line-up last season under Maresca.
The Chelsea academy graduate played 43 times for the Blues last season, and Cole explained to TNT Sports that he was just starting to show signs of everything clicking toward the end of the campaign.
“I think losing Levi Colwill just before the start of the season was massive. The last five or six games of the season, he looked like, you know, when centre halves look like they’ve got to that level and you go, ‘They get it.’
“It happens with all the great centre halves, like Rio [Ferdinand], from the player who was at West Ham to the player who went to Leeds and then went to Manchester United, John Terry eventually.
“Levi Colwill for the six games was like, ‘he’s there now, he’s going to be top,’ so that was a big blow. Not replacing him was a massive blow.”
Chelsea only signed Jorrel Hato from a defensive perspective during the summer transfer window, and that has proven to be a mistake given the extra injuries the Blues have suffered in this area of the pitch.
How big a loss has Levi Colwill been for Chelsea this season?
Colwill’s importance to the Chelsea team has become apparent in the early stages of this season, as the Blues have struggled to get the right balance at the back.
Maresca has chopped and changed his defensive line throughout the season, with some of those decisions based on performances and others on injuries.
While Josh Acheampong has impressed when given the opportunity for the first team, nobody has truly staked a claim to be Chelsea’s first-choice centre-back pairing.
That is where Colwill has been missed as a regular presence within the team who the club could potentially build around.