Chelsea and Brazil suffered a huge blow in July when Estevao Willian sustained a hamstring injury.
Estevao missed Chelsea’s run-in as a result and will not be heading to the World Cup, with the winger yet to recover from his injury.
He is one player Xabi Alonso will be looking forward to working with, but the Spaniard may have to wait a bit before he gets the chance to.
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Estevao unlikely to be back until early August
Initially, it was thought that Estevao would be back for Chelsea’s pre-season, but it now appears that he could miss that.
According to ESPN Brasil, Estevao is not expected to return to the grass until early August. It means that the 19-year-old could miss the start of the 2026/27 Premier League campaign.
It is an early blow for Alonso, who now faces starting his Chelsea reign without one of the team’s better attackers.
The Blues’ forward players really disappointed this season, with Liam Delap and Alejandro Garnacho only scoring two league goals between them.
Estevao alone was able to score two goals, having no prior Premier League experience, unlike Delap and Garnacho.
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Reviewing Estevao Willian’s first season in England
Overall, Estevao can be pleased with how his debut campaign in England went, even if it ended in disappointing fashion.
Ideally, the Brazilian would have liked to have scored more than two Premier League goals, but he was such a threat in the cup competitions.
For example, in the Champions League, Estevao scored three goals in seven outings. In the FA Cup, he netted two times in three games.
According to WhoScored, Estevao completed 1.3 dribbles per league game, which was the second-highest average in Chelsea’s squad.
There was a lot of hype around Estevao, and at times he did deliver. Hopefully his output increases, though, as Chelsea are not going to get anywhere if their wide men cannot score more than five league goals, which was the case this season.
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