Mauricio Pochettino says he still doesn't have a specific time frame for Christopher Nkunku’s return to training, but hopes he can still participate for Chelsea before the end of the season.
The £52million signing has only played nine times in his first season at Stamford Bridge, with his injury problems beginning in pre-season when he got a knee injury that kept him out for the first four months of the campaign.
He has experienced more minor injuries since then and was working on getting fully fit when he was brought on as a late second-half substitute in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool at the end of February.
However, during his brief appearance, which included playing 30 minutes of extra time, Nkunku got another injury that was only noticed later, with Pochettino originally expecting him to return to training in three or four weeks.
It has now been six-and-a-half weeks since Nkunku’s injury, but he is still not back in training, and Pochettino is uncertain about whether the Frenchman will participate again in the remaining matches.
When asked if Nkunku is likely to play again this season, Pochettino responded: ‘I don’t know, I don’t know. Still we don’t know.’
When questioned about whether he had faced any setback in his recovery, with the Frenchman being sidelined for longer than Pochettino’s initial estimate, the Chelsea boss replied: ‘To return to training? I don’t know if I said six weeks. At the moment we don’t know when it’s possible to start to train with the team.
‘At the moment he’s not training with us. That setback that you say didn’t happen, I don’t have information about that.
‘His recovery took longer than we expected. That was after the [Carabao Cup] final if you remember, that I talked, where he played in the final 30 or 40 minutes with a problem and we didn’t know and then we found out after the game.
‘These kinds of situations have also affected other things in the end, overall, because it’s not only him. Too many players have suffered this season.
‘But we hope that he can get involved again quickly, as soon as possible, in the team's dynamic.
‘And, of course, it would be really, really good if, before the end of the season, he can come back and be part of the team again. I hope, hope, that happens.’
Chelsea, now in 12th place in the Premier League table after Bournemouth’s win on Tuesday evening, will play against Manchester United on Thursday evening before heading to Sheffield United on Sunday.
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