Christopher Nkunku sends new Chelsea message with major injury boost ahead of Newcastle.
Christopher Nkunku sends new Chelsea message with major injury boost ahead of Newcastle.
Chelsea injury news as Christopher Nkunku drops another big update with his recovery after the Blues draw with Manchester City on sunday night.
Christopher Nkunku has posted yet more encouraging signs of his recovery progression from a damaging knee injury that has so far kept him out of action all season for Chelsea.
The 25-year-old is still yet to play for the club since signing over the summer but has made another good step forward.
Nkunku played a huge part for Mauricio Pochettino in pre-season, promising to be a keystone in the side competing to get back into the top four in the Premier League, but ended the tour of America with a massive blow following a collision against Borussia Dortmund. Since then he has had to watch on from the sidelines.
Chelsea have struggled to turn chances into goals and matchday dominance into consistent wins so far in his absence but have slowly started to turn a corner having recorded three wins on the bounce. With Nkunku out and fellow attacking midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka also unavailable until this last week after a knee knock of his own, potency has been an issue for Pochettino.
The return of Chukwuemeka and integration of Cole Palmer and Armando Broja into the squad has come at a good time for Chelsea though and it leaves Nkunku’s latest boost as even more of a positive.
Taking once more to social media the forward posted several videos of the gym work being done.
As well as advancing with the upper body and arm workouts, Nkunku is seen pushing his legs to new limits on his road to recovery as well as doing kick ups with a ball. It’s the first time he’s been seen with a ball at his feet since the injury.
Despite being out of the action, Nkunku is still supporting his side and consistently uses Instagram to send good wishes and messages to his teammates. After the 4-4 draw against Man City on Sunday evening he wrote: “Nice Performance guys!! [heart eyes emoji and green tick emoji].”
Nkunku still isn’t expected to return until earlier December at the earliest after early prognosis revealed a timeframe of around five months from pre-season. That takes him until around the crossover into December and given that it’s his second long-term injury in the past 12 months his recovery will be managed carefully.
Chelsea are already being cautious with the steps being taken to get Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia back into the fold whilst Wesley Fofana will likely miss the entire season with another knee injury of his own.
Armando Broja has made the return to first team football after nine months out and has been wrapped in cotton wool so far too.
Nkunku promises to be an even more important player than them all when he is fit so risking a knock-on injury simply isn’t something Chelsea can afford, especially during the winter period of fixtures when games come thick and fast. For now though, the meeting with Newcastle after the international break comes far too soon for Nkunku.
