TBR Football can exclusively reveal that Chelsea feel they have internal solutions to replace Levi Colwill following his serious knee injury.
The Englishman has been a key player for Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge over the last year. He played 43 times in all competitions, including the Club World Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Colwill would’ve remained a key part heading into the new season, but the 22-year-old has suffered an ACL injury, and that will keep him out of action for several months.
Chelsea need someone to replace him, and members of the coaching staff think a surprise defender, who was on the transfer list, should get an opportunity.
Chelsea coaches think Renato Veiga should get a chance after Levi Colwill’s injury
TBR Football’s chief correspondent, Graeme Bailey, can reveal that Chelsea are considering entering the transfer market for a replacement for Levi Colwill, but those within the club think they can cope without a new defender.
Colwill has suffered an ACL injury in training, which has sidelined him until early 2026.
The club were already looking at a potential central defender with Wesley Fofana just returning from injury. We can confirm that the likes of Marc Guehi, Club Brugge’s Joel Ordonez, Wolfsburg’s Konstantinos Koulierakis and Bournemouth’s Ilia Zabarnyi have been looked at.
However, in light of the Colwill injury, the club are assessing their left-sided options as Benoit Badiashile is out until September too.
Chelsea have just signed hybrid left-sider Jorrel Hato, who can play centrally, but we can now reveal that some within the club are encouraging the hierarchy to use their own players instead of bringing in more new faces.
Fluminense FC v Chelsea FC: Semi Final - FIFA Club World Cup 2025
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There is young Argentine Aaron Anselmino, but the player who is surprisingly being pushed to replace Colwill is Renato Veiga, who was set to leave the club this summer.
Veiga spent the second half of last season at Juventus and returned to the club this summer, hoping for a chance. But he was told that he would be moved on. The 22-year-old almost joined Atletico Madrid in recent weeks before that move fell through, while there is also interest from Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
We can now confirm that some of the club’s coaching staff believe that Veiga should be given the chance to show his worth now that Colwill will not be available for the foreseeable future.
Bailey told TBR: “Chelsea are gutted about Colwill, he is such a popular player and is a key performer for them, and they are fully supporting him.
“However, they are assessing their options and I am told there are some voices at Cobham who believe that with Veiga, Anselmino and Hato, they could very well cope without him in the short-term.”
How Renato Veiga fared when he faced one of the best strikers in the world
Renato Veiga is a very talented young player – that’s why Chelsea signed him from Basel.
The 22-year-old has played just 18 games for the Blues before making 15 appearances in Juventus’ colours during his loan spell there.
Veiga has also earned five senior caps for Portugal, the first of which came against Poland. He faced Robert Lewandowski in that game, and the Chelsea defender came out on top.
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez heaped praise on him after the game by saying, as per A Bola: “I’m very pleased because he didn’t play like a young player, he showed incredible maturity.
“He had a good connection with Rúben Dias and Nuno Mendes. And it was demanding to play against Poland and against Lewandowski. He was a focused and aggressive central defender, he won all the duels, he’s very strong in the air.
“I really enjoyed his debut, and the difficulty was superlative. I’m happy, but not surprised, we saw his potential during the training camp in September, now we see that he’s ready.
“The level of Renato’s debut shows his potential and presents a different profile to what we had. We’re talking about a game against one of the best penalty area players in modern football (Robert Lewandowski). I think his debut is even more important [and it] showed that [he’s] part of the team.”