Home » Injury boost for Chelsea as 21-year-old star nears return after lengthy layoff

Injury boost for Chelsea as 21-year-old star nears return after lengthy layoff

published :

August 22, 2023

Chelsea could miss out on Karim Benzema signing after Manchester United enter the fray.

Chelsea striker Armando Broja to return to full fitness from a bad knee injury last season

As per a tweet from Simon Phillips, via Daily Mail journalist Adrian J Kajumba, Chelsea striker Armando Broja is close to returning to full fitness after picking up an ACL injury last December.

After struggling to get much game time in the first half of last season, Broja was playing a friendly game during Chelsea’s mid-season training camp when others were busy playing in the World Cup.

The Albanian international picked that ACL injury up in one of those warm-up games against Aston Villa. He was immediately ruled out for the second half of last season as a result.

Armando Broja is nearing a return to fitness after his knee injury and expected to be in position to step up his comeback either behind closed doors or with Chelsea’s under-21s soon.

– @AdrianJKajumba
— Simon Phillips (@siphillipssport) August 21, 2023

The club’s academy product had an excellent loan spell at Southampton for the 2021/22 season before coming back to Stamford Bridge last summer.

A few days ago, it was revealed in Evening Standard that Chelsea will reject any offer for Broja. Serie A side AC Milan were interested in signing the 21-year-old.

What that tells us is that he remains in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans despite not playing any football for close 10 months. Seeing how light Chelsea are up front barring Nicolas Jackson, it would make sense to keep the Albanian in the squad.

West Ham United are considering a summer swoop for Chelsea striker Armando Broja. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Now, the hope is that he recovers soon and starts training with the team before the end of this calendar year. Once he does that, we can see him play a big part in the second half of this season.

It would be around that time when we will see Christopher Nkunku recover from his knee injury and make his Chelsea debut. Add Nkunku and Broja to the current options Pochettino has upfront, things automatically start to look better.