Borussia Dortmund's huge transfer obstacle revealed amid interest in Chelsea's Carney Chukwuemeka | OneFootball

Carney Chukwuemeka will be allowed to leave Chelsea this month after a lack of game time under head coach Enzo Maresca this season.

The 21-year-old's future at Stamford Bridge is extremely uncertain having made just five appearances in all competitions, which have all come in the Conference League and Carabao Cup.

Chukwuemeka joined Chelsea in the first summer of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership in 2022 from Aston Villa for £20m. However, he has now fallen out-of-favour in west London and looks set to depart.

Last summer, following his appointment from Leicester City, Maresca was ready to allow Chukwuemeka to depart on loan to play on a regular basis.

"I will say exactly the same thing I have said many times: Carney is a very good player, but for the amount of players we have, we decided at the beginning of the season it is probably better to leave and go somewhere, prove himself and playing 30 or 35 games than being here and play less games," admitted Maresca in September.

"Unfortunately that didn't happen. He is our player. He had some minutes the other day, today he was not involved. Hopefully, we can give him more minutes."

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Maresca's stance hasn't changed and Chukwuemeka's minutes have been extremely limited so far this term. Last month, the Chelsea head coach confirmed the midfielder was likely to request a departure.

"There are players that unfortunately didn't play a lot with us in all the competitions like (Ben) Chilwell, like Carney (Chukwuemeka)," said Maresca.

"Probably they are the first (to say) that they want to leave because they train every day, because they want to play games and if they don't play games probably they are thinking of leaving.

"Each player is a bit different situation, so we're going to see if some of them are coming and knocking on the door to say 'I want to leave' or something like that. We will try to find a solution."

The January transfer window is open and interest in Chukwuemeka, who has a £40m release clause, is beginning to emerge.

One club who are interested is Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund, as revealed by Sky in Germany. Nuri Sahin's side are eyeing a new number eight and the Chelsea midfielder is among the names on their shortlist.

However, Chelsea's release clause is deemed 'way too high' for the German club and with the Blues open to a loan agreement, it may serve as Dortmund's only opportunity to strike a deal for Chukwuemeka.

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Chelsea have had their fair share of injury problems this season, including Romeo Lavia, although he is expected to return in the next week following a hamstring injury. Andrey Santos and Lesley Ugochukwu are both out on loan until the end of the season.

Chukwuemeka has drawn attention from West Ham, who look set to part ways with boss Julen Lopetegui, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also on the radar of the Hammers.