How unlucky: one of Chelsea’s most exciting loan moves fell at the first hurdle | OneFootball

While Chelsea fans were frustrated with the lack of players coming in in January, they were happy about a couple of the outgoing moves.

Most Blue supporters are big fans of Carney Chukwuemeka, for one, and were puzzled by why he was frozen out so totally by Enzo Maresca. After 6 months of the cold shoulder, we all just wanted him to move on and go somewhere where he can play regularly at a high level, and that’s just he got with a loan to Borussia Dortmund.

Sadly, it’s had the most frustrating possible start – he missed his first game for the German side over the weekend injured.

“Carney Chukwuemeka is missing from the squad after suffering a knock to his knee in yesterday’s final training session,” they wrote on Twitter just as we were getting excited to see him in black and yellow for the first time.

To make things worse, struggling Dortmund lost the game, the first under new manager Niko Kovac.

Carney needs to be patient with his body as he seeks return to regular football

Carney Chukwuemeka trains for Borussia Dortmund. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund)

This is just typical of football, isn’t it. You wait 6 months for a chance to get some minutes, then you get a knock in the final hours before the game that rules you out. It’s often not a coincidence either – so long without playing makes you more vulnerable to these small issues as you gradually readapt to the insane physical demands of top tier football.

Let’s hope the issue is as minor as is sounds and Carney is soon back in their team doing his thing. It’s not long until the next international break now, and we’d like him to get some solid minutes under his belt for his new team before then.