Chelsea are worse without Wesley Fofana - but can they rely on his fitness?

Wesley Fofana may be back in Chelseas starting line-up for the first time in four months when his former club Leicester City visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday or he may not be.

If he is, every sprint, every sharp turn, every tackle and every collision the 24-year-old defender is involved in will carry a whiff of jeopardy.

If he is not, more than a week after returning to the matchday squad as an unused substitute against Southampton, there will be fresh questions about whether his recovery has had a setback or is simply not progressing as well as hoped.

Advertisement This is the inherently volatile nature of the Fofana experience.

What makes it all so much more fraught for Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is that there can be no minimising the Frenchmans value to this young team when he is fit to play.

His absence has coincided with a dire run of form and while correlation is not causation, it has undoubtedly been a key factor.

In the 12 Premier League matches Fofana has started in 2024-25, Chelsea average 1.3 expected goals conceded per game according to Opta.

That rises to 1.6 expected goals conceded in the 17 top-flight games they have played without him.

Opponent finishing has made the difference even more pronounced; in the league this season, Chelsea have conceded an average of a goal a game with Fofana in their team and 1.6 without him.

It is partly about talent and partly about tactics.

In terms of ability, Fofana is Chelseas most complete defender, possessing a rare blend of skill, speed and strength that makes him capable of dominating opposition attackers in the air and on the ground, in small spaces and over big ones.

He is every bit as comfortable winning a heavily-contested header in his own penalty area as he is beating a fast No 9 to the ball in a 40-yard dash.

All that makes Fofana an ideal defensive insurance policy for the way Maresca wants to play.

On his last Chelsea appearance, against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on December 1, he was tasked with defending Ollie Watkins alone with an ocean of space behind him while centre-back partner Levi Colwill was instructed to push up higher.

Ive said many times I am in love with Wes, because Wes is that kind of defender who gives you the chance to press and be aggressive and to leave him one-versus-one with someone like Ollie Watkins over the whole pitch, Maresca said in a press conference in January.

We did exactly the same when Wes was injured with Benoit (Badiashile), one-versus-one with (Tottenham striker) Dominic Solanke on the whole pitch, and they can deal with that.

It is very difficult to find that kind of defender.

Advertisement Chelseas lack of that kind of defender has been glaring at times in recent months.

Manchester City calmly carved open Marescas high defensive line repeatedly at the Etihad Stadium in January.

Kaoru Mitomas otherworldly first touch setting up Brightons first of three unanswered goals at the Amex Stadium last month understandably dominated the post-game analysis, but long, floated passes over the Chelsea back line would be far less attractive to opponents if Fofana was around.

Within that context, his seemingly imminent return to action is hugely positive news, particularly given Marescas initial assertion that he could miss the remainder of the season with the hamstring problem he sustained against Villa.

That public prognosis was shocking at the time, but it is not even the most alarming thing Chelseas head coach has said about the France internationals health this season.

That particular award must go to a quote from a press conference in October.

Now he is fighting with pain, he said of Fofana.

When you have that kind of injury, you will probably feel pain for the rest of your career unfortunately it is like this.

At the time Maresca uttered those words, Fofana was still two months shy of his 24th birthday.

He was also more than a year removed from the ACL reconstruction surgery he underwent on one knee in the summer of 2023 and more than six months on from the meniscus injury in the other that wrecked his hopes of featuring at all for Chelsea last season .

It is unclear which injury Maresca was actually referring to, but the notion that pain management might already need to be a constant consideration for Fofana was a sobering one.

Chelsea took as many precautions as they reasonably could have in the first four months of this season, omitting him from their Conference League squad and never giving his body less than a week to recover between Premier League appearances.

GO DEEPER The rejuvenation of Frank Lampard at Coventry: 'This is what I love doing the most' None of it was sufficient to prevent Fofana from breaking down again in that Villa game three months ago and while the circumstances that led to his hamstring injury that day treading on the ball during a tussle with Watkins were relatively innocuous, it is difficult to shake the conclusion that the same body which makes him so well suited to the high-intensity nature of Premier League football also makes him uniquely vulnerable to it.

Advertisement Chelsea went into this arrangement with their eyes wide open when signing Fofana from Leicester for a fee in the region of 70million ($87.5m) in August 2022.

His injury record was already a significant concern, to the extent that ownership took the highly unusual step of flying him to the U.S.

for a medical assessment by the team doctor of the NBAs Los Angeles Lakers that lasted longer than 10 hours .

Fofana had missed an average of 34 matches in each of his three previous seasons as a professional with Saint-Etienne and Leicester, according to Transfermarkt , as a result of numerous knee problems as well as a lengthy recovery from a horrific leg break suffered in August 2021.

Nothing Chelsea saw or heard deterred them from making Fofana the most expensive defensive signing in their history, or from giving him a seven-year contract.

What has transpired since must be regarded as close to the worst-case scenario outcome; to date, he has played just 20.5 per cent of the available first-team minutes for Chelsea across all competitions.

Signed before Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were appointed co-sporting directors in February 2023, Fofana is one of Chelseas higher earners.

And when he is fit to play, he more often than not performs like one.

In terms of age and skill profile, he is perfectly equipped to be a key long-term pillar of Marescas defence.

But can any club credibly build around him with such an injury history? It was notable that Chelsea were proactive in exploring centre-back options in the recent winter transfer window before ultimately recalling Trevoh Chalobah from what was initially a seasons loan at Crystal Palace.

Marc Guehi, also of Palace, remains of interest and, as well as being a polished leader and an established England international set to enter the final year of his contract this summer, has missed only 13 matches due to injury in three and a half years at Selhurst Park, according to Transfermarkt .

Fofana has the opportunity to change the narrative of his career, though.

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With a contract that runs until June 2029, he also has the luxury of time to search for it at Chelsea.

Advertisement He may or may not make his next attempt to return to the pitch against Leicester, a club who, despite their own chronic defensive issues, presently look back on his sale as a great piece of business.

His availability for the final three months of the season would be a huge boost to Marescas bid to deliver Champions League qualification.

But for now and for the future, Chelsea need to feel fully confident in a defensive plan that does not rely upon Fofana.

(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images).

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