Benoît Badiashile will not require surgery on a groin injury he suffered last week and is expected to return in time for the start of the 2023/24 season, football.london understands.
As reported on Monday this week, the French defender will be out for around three months through injury after hurting himself in training at Cobham last week. Badiashile has impressed since signing for Chelsea over the January transfer window and had recently broken back into the first-team under interim head coach Frank Lampard.
Back-to-back starts against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest saw the 22-year-old impress for the Blues but a groin problem that was sustained at Cobham last week means Badiashile is now on crutches. The good news for the defender is that no surgery is required on the injury and there is still hope that he could be fit and ready for the start of next season, where Chelsea are expected to be managed by Mauricio Pochettino.
READ MORE: Chelsea suffer major injury blow as Benoit Badiashile to miss Mauricio Pochettino pre-season
However, Badiashile is set to miss a lot of what would be a significant pre-season with Chelsea as the club jet off to America once again. Pochettino will use that time to find out a lot about his new squad of players and Badiashile's development could be somewhat halted by this latest setback.
Badiashile has proven to be a reliable option for the left centre-back role, whether that's in a four-back formation or with three defenders. Levi Colwill is expected to return to Chelsea over the summer once his loan deal with Brighton expires and the talented defender is set to compete with Badiashile for that role in the first-team next season after an impressive campaign down on the south coast with the Seagulls.
As football.london reported last month, Chelsea still view Colwill as someone with a hugely promising future and are determined to get him tied down to a new long-term contract. That's despite interest from Liverpool and Manchester City in the 20-year-old's services ahead of the 2023/24 season.
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