Chelsea fans are fearing the worst after Thiago Silva was forced off early in the second half of their Premier League clash with Aston Villa.
Silva, 37, has hardly suffered with injury problems throughout the 2021/22 campaign but the Boxing Day fixture may be the first time we have seen a chink in the world-class player's armoury.
In the first half, the Brazilian looked his usual, assured self, however shortly after the break, he was clearly struggling and had to be taken off on the 52nd minute for Andreas Christensen.
As Sky Sports coverage showed, the 37-year-old was shown walking gingerly off the pitch, which will likely come as a concern to Thomas Tuchel and the Chelsea fans, who know the value that the former Paris-Saint Germain serial winner adds to the defensive set-up.
Here is the reaction on social media to Silva's injury concern.
@AAsmoke tweeted: 'Void the season.'
@ForeverBlue07 reckons: 'And our injury list keeps getting longer...'
@LumpOfCFC delivered his three-word verdict: 'So much pain.'
@_Adam_CFC similarly put in correspondence with the top comment: 'cancel the season.'
Tuchel will likely address the situation in his post-Villa press conference, but the question of five substitutions may come into the equation again after another potential injury to a first-team regular.
"On this occasion I would love to push for five substitutions as five substitutions were made to protect the players when corona popped up and made life difficult," Tuchel reflected after Brentford in his post-match press conference.
"I think the situation is very serious and very demanding, very challenging so for the health of the players if we decide to keep on playing, at least we should have five players to control the load."
Unfortunately for Tuchel, both N'Golo Kante and Silva will be missing for the upcoming Brighton match which sums up the luck his side have had with injuries and Covid issues to date.
