Insider: Chelsea defender given all clear by national team doctors; still won’t face Liverpool | OneFootball

Fabrice Hawkins is one of the French media’s most plugged in individuals, and he’s just produced a report which claims that Wesley Fofana has passed fit by the national team’s doctors after a scare was reported yesterday.

The Chelsea defender was being checked after he got a “blow to the shin” a few weeks ago, but has the all clear to train and then presumably play for his national team against Israel and Belgium in the Nations League this week.

There were fears he had picked up a more serious issue – it would have been terrible timing for Chelsea, who have now got a number of suspensions and injury worries to players like Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella to worry about – and that’s before any potential future issues picked up with national teams this week.

Chelsea want defender to play – but not too much

The best case scenario here is that Fofana just plays one of France’s two games, or gets 60 minutes or so in either. We’re all in favour of him building back up to the regular stresses of a full season, but after 3 of the last 4 years spent on the sidelines, things need to be taken very slowly. Given he’s suspended for our next game, we’re more happy than usual for him to get some minutes for France just to keep him at match speed. But two full games in a week would be pushing it, especially given he’s got this niggle.

It’s hardly like France are short of talented central defender to fill in for him, either. Getting Fofana back in one piece from Clairefontaine will be all the more important given the other absences mentioned above. He and Colwill look to finally be building a partnership at the back for Chelsea that could be relied upon, but they need many more reps together.