Graham Potter confirms 'little injury setback' for Wesley Fofana

Chelsea manager Graham Potter has confirmed centre-back Wesley Fofana has suffered a minor setback in his recovery from a knee injury.

The Frenchman, signed for up to £75m in summer, only managed four appearances for his new club before going down with a nasty injury in early October forced him onto the sidelines. He then made his long-awaited return in a friendly against Brentford during the World Cup break.

However, Fofana limped out of that game after aggravating the injury once again, sparking fears he could be set for another lengthy spell out of action – the player himself later alleviated those concerns by insisting the injury was ‘nothing bad’.

Now, Potter has echoed that sentiment by describing Fofana’s latest issue as a ‘little setback’.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with Bournemouth, Potter told a press conference: “Wesley just had a little setback which can sometimes happen at the very last stage of the rehab, so a couple of weeks, he won’t be available for the game.”

Fofana’s setback comes at a time in which Chelsea are missing a number of first-team players.

“We’re still waiting on Hakim [Ziyech] and Mateo [Kovacic],” Potter said. “They went to third and fourth place [in the World Cup], played the game as well. It’s a big demand for them, they wont’ be available for the game as a consequence.

“Armando [Broja] is a big loss in terms of the time he is out.

“Reece [James] is back in. He’s been training with us and completed 65 minutes in the week. Still without Ruben [Loftus-Cheek], still without Ben Chilwell, obviously [N’Golo] Kante, [Edouard] Mendy has had a couple of days training with us.”