There's never a good time for one of your most influential players to be ruled out for the remainder of the season, and Ben Chilwell is certainly one of Chelsea's most influential players.
The England left-back requires surgery on an ACL injury and isn't expected to feature for the Blues again in the 2021/22 campaign, with Chelsea fans already worrying how Thomas Tuchel is going to replace the former Leicester man.
Chelsea have only won four of their last nine matches in Chilwell's absence, with the defence suddenly looking vulnerable and the attack not as sharp.
It’s as if someone has whipped a side block out from a game of Jenga - one piece has gone and the tower has come tumbling down.
A whole host of options have already been touted, with Lucas Digne and Sergino Dest just two of the names linked with a move to Stamford Bridge.
Some Chelsea supporters have even mentioned the possibility of putting faith in Marcos Alonso until the end of the season before welcoming Chilwell back into the fold, but the harsh reality is that it takes most footballers years to fully recover from ACL surgery.
While I hope this isn't the case for Chilwell, we’d be naive to assume it's not a possibility.
The January transfer window is a notoriously difficult time to do business, but the fact of the matter is Chelsea now have no option but to go out and spend big on a new left-back.
You may think I'm being harsh, but one look at former Manchester City star Leroy Sane will tell you I'm absolutely right.
Having torn his ACL against Liverpool in the 2019/20 Community Sheild, Sane would go on to muster just one league appearance for City in his final season at the Etihad.
Despite the injury, the Germany international secured a move to Bayern Munich in summer 2020, yet his maiden season at the club didn't live up to the £55million the Bundesliga giants paid to secure his services.
A paltry six league goals for a wide forward in a team that scored 99 in 34 Bundesliga outings tells you just how well Sane performed in his first campaign back in his native Germany, as he looked to regain match sharpness after his lengthy lay-off.
This season already looks like being a totally different story, with Sane just one goal off matching his league tally from 2020/21 and having bagged an impressive 12 assists in all competitions.
We may yet see Chilwell back to his best in a Chelsea shirt once he's fully recovered, but how long that will take is anyone's guess. Tuchel can't afford to wait a year for him to get back up to speed and so reinforcements are needed.
Make sure you have subscribed to CareFree Chelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team along with plenty of your football.london favourites will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews. You can follow Anita Abayomi from the CareFreeChelsea team to keep up to date with his work.
