Sky Sports contributor Ben Dinnery has given his verdict on a potential return to action for Chelsea midfielder Denis Zakaria.
The midfielder was taken off in the 56th minute against Fulham in midweek, while The Telegraph has reported that a number of Blues players believe the medical department is the cause of the large number of injuries sustained by the west London club.
Graham Potter’s side currently have a number of players sidelined, including Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana and Reece James.
Zakaria joined on loan from Italian giants Juventus, but took a while to feature for the Blues, playing his first Premier League match against Bournemouth in late December. Since then, he had played in every league game up until his injury at Craven Cottage.
He has one goal to his name for Chelsea which came in the Champions League against Dinamo Zagreb, but he’s yet to register a goal or an assist in the Premier League.
Speaking on the Premier FPL Injuries YouTube channel, Dinnery claimed Zakaria would be ‘out until around about mid-February’.
He stated: “He picked up that thigh problem, upper quad injury on the Thursday evening.
“It looks as if Zakaria’s going to probably be out until around about mid-February. We’re thinking around about four weeks, although potentially Graham Potter is hopeful that that injury isn’t as severe as maybe as first thought.”
TIF Thoughts on Dinnery’s comments…
We believe that the injury to Zakaria is a big blow for Chelsea, having sustained this setback just as he was starting to integrate himself into the starting XI.
Not only was the midfielder starting to get minutes under his belt, but Potter was giving him a starring role in the Blues midfield, averaging 72 minutes on the pitch in the Premier League.
The 26-year-old, who has been hailed as ‘excellent’, also boasts a passing success rate of 90% in the league, which is better than both Mason Mount (81%) and Mateo Kovacic (84%), who both played alongside him against Fulham.
Zakaria still has a chance to make an impact at Chelsea once he returns, and if he continues where he left off, we think there could be a possibility that Potter will look to sign him permanently in the summer window.