Chelsea star opens up on playing through pain for six months | OneFootball

Enzo Fernandez has undergone successful surgery on a groin issue, which he said had caused him pain for six months.

Chelsea announced on Thursday the 23-year-old would miss the rest of the season as he required surgery on the problem, meaning the Blues are without 12 players for Saturday night’s game against Aston Villa.

The Argentina international will play no part in the club’s final six games of the season, as the Blues look to qualify for European football, but is expected to be fit for the Copa America this summer.

The World Cup winner shared a post to his Instagram page on Friday to confirm he has now started his recovery, and revealed he had been having injections for most of the season to get through games.

The midfielder said: “I wanted to let you know that my operation was successful everything went well thank God.

“I needed to get this surgery since I been dragging the pain for about 6 months. It was something I could avoid while constantly treating myself with injections and medications.

“But a few weeks ago the pain started to get more and more intense, without any of this taking effect, and it was worse as I trained and played annoyingly, but I didn’t want to stop being in the games I had.

“Whenever I got to play with Chelsea jersey, like the national team, I always try to do my best despite all this but I can’t stand it anymore.”

“Thank you for the messages, encouragement and your token of love always. Shout out to everyone I promise you I’m coming back stronger than ever.”

Fernandez has made 40 appearances in all competitions for Mauricio Pochettino’s side this season, with only Axel Disasi, Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher making more.

In the build up to the Aston Villa game Pochettino stated Fernandez could have played on for the remainder of the season, but he wouldn’t have been anywhere near his best.

“Yeah, but at the moment he feels the pain and he feels the limitations because of the problem”, the 52-year-old told his pre match press conference.

“The most important thing is to fix the problem for him. If he does not feel well, he cannot perform because of the situation, it’s not good for him, the team or the club.”