Latest: Chelsea hit by another attacking injury blow, 38 G/A wizard finally gets his chance | OneFootball

Things went from bad to worse for Chelsea on Saturday when Noni Madueke pulled up lame after chasing a ball against Brighton in our 3-0 defeat.

Without Madueke – who is not a perfect player but is at least aggressive and direct – the Blues never looked like they had a chance of getting back into the game. With Mykhailo Mudryk out suspended and Joao Felix loaned to AC Milan, Chelsea were forced to use Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto.

Speaking after the game, Maresca confirmed “it is a hamstring injury” and said his winger would be “out for a while.” The only question is how long that while is.

Generally even in the best case scenario a hamstring tweak is going to be a couple of weeks, so a month or more feels likely. He wasn’t in agony or stretchered off, but it was bad enough that he knew right away he had to go.

Ultimately however we’re all waiting until Enzo Maresca’s press conference on Friday to find out more. He’s not always the best at giving clear information, but we’ll certainly be able to narrow this down from the scale of months to weeks at that point.

Chelsea set to turn to academy talent to step up

Tyrique George on his senior debut against Noah. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

The one positive that can come from this nightmare is more game time for Tyrique George. The winger has played a decent amount this season, and got his longest Premier League appearance yet on Saturday when he was summoned from the bench.

He’s now our only winger option not called Sancho or Neto, so we expect him to play plenty more in the time until Madueke returns. TransferMarkt records him as having 20 assists and 18 goals in 78 appearance at all levels in his career so far, and he now has a great chance to build on that.