The only explanation for bizarre briefing over Wesley Fofana “ahead of schedule” return | OneFootball

Doom and gloom has ruled at Chelsea in the last few weeks. Results have suddenly turned and the Blues are now 4 games without a win. Not only that, but the injury to Wesley Fofana that had kept him out for a month already was suddenly upgraded pre-game to a potential season ender by Enzo Maresca in his press conference.

This afternoon, however, Fabrizio Romano has reported on news from French sports paper L’Equipe that the defender is apparently “confident to return ahead of schedule,” and “hopes to be back around mid-March in order to help the team for the final months of the season.”

It’s an odd one as many fans have pointed out – why would a player whose career is being ruined by injury want to rush back from his latest issue?

The explanation for positive brief

Wesley Fofana looks broken as he is subbed off against Aston Villa.

The obvious explanation for all this is that it’s a brief to L’Equipe from Fofana’s camp. They can sense that the tide has really turned after this latest injury and that fans are giving up on the idea that Fofana will ever be a consistent and injury free option.

Transfer rumour are already linking us to elite players and writing off the former Leicester man as old news.

This is clearly a hyper optimistic view of the situation and one meant to inject a bit of positivity into things. But the reality is that the club won’t risk bringing him back early, nor is Fofana likely to do anything which could affect him for the worse long term.

We’d love to believe it, but we’ll be very surprised if we see Fofana play anything more significant than a sort of morale boosting late-season cameo like Ben Chilwell had a couple of years ago.