Fofana, Gusto also withdraw from international duty, citing injuries

Yesterday at 01:22 AM

Working on their fitness

Two more Chelsea players have withdrawn from international duty in the past 24 hours, with Wesley Fofana and Malo Gusto choosing the same course of action as Levi Colwill and Cole Palmer at the start of the week. All four had started our last game, Sunday against Arsenal, but evidently are not 100 per cent.

Fofana was named in the France squad, alongside Chelsea teammate Christopher Nkunku, but has opted against joining up. The French FA confirmed the decision, citing "pain in his knee". Given our record-center-back-signing's injury history, combined with reports in France (via the Evening Standard) that he has been playing through a bit of "inflammation in his knee tendon", the situation isn't entirely unconcerning. Fofana, restricted solely to weekend duties in the Premier League, has only missed one game this season through suspension.

In a similar situation, Malo Gusto has also returned to Cobham. He had actually joined up with the French under-21 squad, but they sent him home after their own medical checks. The nature of the injury was not confirmed by the French FA, though Gusto has been dealing with a thigh concern since last month at least (when he also withdrew from the under-21 national team), and he missed a couple games for us back in September as well.

Hopefully all of these injuries are of the manageable kind, which should respond well to a bit of rest during the break.