Talented Chelsea starlet speaks lifts the lid on his recovery from injury

Billy Gilmour believes he is ready to return to first-team action

Giving a pre-match interview (h/t Football.london) before the UEFA Champions League group stage match against Krasnodar on Tuesday, Billy Gilmour talked about his road to recovery from a serious injury and how is ready to be involved in the first-team picture once again.

Billy Gilmour had a breakthrough year at the Blues last year as he made 11 senior appearances for the Chelsea side in all competitions.

However, an injury in July 2020 sidelined the young Scottish midfielder for a considerable time, in which Frank Lampard considerably bolstered the Chelsea squad in the summer transfer window.

The 19-year-old midfielder recovered a few weeks back and played several games for Chelsea’s development team along with Scotland’s U-21 national squad to regain full match fitness.

Gilmour returned to first-team action last week when he came on to make his first senior appearance for Chelsea in the 2020/21 season.

The Scotsman was brought on in the 85th minute of Chelsea’s 4-0 rout of Sevilla which led to the Blues qualifying for the UEFA Champions League round of 16 as group winners with a match to spare.

Speaking about his return to Chelsea’s senior team, Gilmour says he is ready to go and looking forward to more appearances in Lampard’s side.

“It has been a long time out with my first major injury. I was disappointed to get it, but now I am back and feeling strong and I can’t wait to be going again. It has been a long time out with my first major injury. I was disappointed to get it, but now I am back and feeling strong and I can’t wait to be going again.”

Chelsea spent lavishly in the 2020 summer transfer window to bolster an already stacked squad. But Gilmour says he is looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead of him.

“There has been a lot of new signings, good players, good additions to the squad and you can see the competition for places in the team is a good thing and that’s why we are playing so well… you can see they are good players that have come in, in the attacking sense we have been doing really well with the goals we’ve been scoring. But I need to focus on coming back into the team and playing again.”

Gilmour would be hoping to make his second appearance for Chelsea this season as the Blues face Russian side Krasnodar in a Champions League ‘dead rubber’ on Tuesday night.