Omari Kellyman has had to deal with a long-term injury during his debut season with Chelsea, but he was finally back in competitive action with the Under-21s side this week.
Chelsea signed Omari Kellyman, 19, from Aston Villa in the previous summer transfer window. Unfortunately, the teenage attacking midfielder is still waiting to make his first-team debut for the Blues, missing most of the campaign so far with a hamstring injury.
On Friday night, Kellyman played 20 minutes for Chelsea’s U21s in a 2-1 victory over Ipswich Town to qualify for the Premier League Cup quarter-finals.
The English teenager played for the Blues U21s side back in August. Remarkably, his cameo versus Ipswich were his first minutes for the club since his hamstring problem.
Photo by Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images
Photo by Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images
Omari Kellyman to stay with U21s in March before joining first team
Journalist Ben Jacobs has reported via X that Kellyman is ‘likely’ to remain with Chelsea’s U21s group for the rest of March while he builds up his fitness.
Afterwards, he’s expected to join up with the first-team squad at some stage before the end of the season, potentially as early as April.
Omari Kellyman on for his first Chelsea minutes in the Under-21s 2-1 win over Ipswich.
Kellyman hopeful of first-team opportunities before the season is out. Likely to stay with Under-21s in March and then join up with first-team at some point between now and the end of season,… pic.twitter.com/Vf1bzTWJKz
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) March 8, 2025
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Kellyman, who can be very effective in a No 10 position, is still relatively unknown to Chelsea supporters. It’s a boost that he could be drafted into the senior group soon, though.
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It would be interesting to see if Kellyman could ease the burden off Palmer as extra cover in the squad during the end-of-season run in.
He played a couple of first-team matches for Villa in Europe before leaving them, so we’ll have to wait and see whether he’s ready to make an impact in the Chelsea set up.
Photo by Chris Lee - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Photo by Chris Lee – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Omari Kellyman won’t want to get stuck with the U21s
Even though Chelsea splashed out £19m on Kellyman, it doesn’t feel like there’s a guarantee he’ll get minutes in the senior squad. First and foremost, he needs to make sure he moves on from the U21s as quickly as possible once he’s fully fit again.
The good news is that Chelsea consider Kellyman a first-team player after bringing him to Stamford Bridge, but we’ll see whether Enzo Maresca sticks to that idea.
When you consider the likes of Joao Felix and Carney Chukwuemeka left Chelsea on loan in the winter transfer window to get regular football, it does feel pretty ominous for Kellyman.
On the flip side, Chelsea’s starting line-up on Thursday against Copenhagen in the Conference League did include both Tyrique George and Shim Mheuka. Kellyman should certainly set himself the target of first-team minutes in the European competition before the season ends.