Chelsea were already missing their best player, attacking midfielder Cole Palmer, for multiple weeks with a groin injury, and before Saturday’s tough early Premier League fixture against 2024/25 top five contenders Nottingham Forest, Blues manager Enzo Maresca admitted that the England international will have to miss six more weeks of action.
It’s a massive blow for Chelsea, as Palmer is at the heart of everything good about Chelsea. But at least with the likes of Alejandro Garnacho, Estevao Willian, and Joao Pedro in the team this season, the Blues have some exciting playmaking talent to make up for the loss of their Ballon d’Or candidate.
But now, Chelsea have also lost another key player, albeit further back in the starting lineup. Speaking ahead of the Forest game, Maresca also revealed that center back Benoit Badiashile will miss an extended period of time with an injury.
Maresca said, via Fabrizio Romano, “Benoit Badiashile will be out until December. He has suffered a muscular problem”.
Normally in the past, an injury to Badiashile would not have seemed like a big deal, but it has now become clear to Chelsea fans that Badiashile is a very good center back and an important player to Chelsea.
In fact, ever since Levi Colwill’s ACL tear and with how badly the other defenders have been performing this season, Badiashile has been vital to Chelsea and is absolutely their best central defender at this very moment in time.
Losing Palmer for another six weeks is obviously the biggest blow, but losing Badiashile for around six weeks, too, until December is also a huge deal for the Blues.
It’s a good thing, then, that at least for this game, Chelsea will get to face a Notttingham Forest that have been a downright embarrassment with failed Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou taking the reigns from Nuno Espirito Santo.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.