Chelsea's £130m major injury problem revealed despite Enzo Maresca's best efforts

Enzo Maresca has rotated his Chelsea squad so much this season but the Blues head coach is still missing a host of key players through injury at the time of writing

It is by no means a crisis or a disaster, but Chelsea now have five first-team players sidelined through injury. There are clubs in the Premier League with more, but Enzo Maresca is without a handful of his key players for the trip to Newcastle United at the weekend.

Estevao Willian, Dario Essugo, Romeo Lavia, Liam Delap and Levi Colwill, who cost the club a combined figure of £130million in transfer fees, are all out of the visit to St. James' Park on Saturday afternoon. Estevao the latest to be ruled out with a small muscular problem, with Maresca confirming the news after the win at Cardiff City , with the Brazilian being left back at home.

"He had a small problem, a muscle problem," said the Chelsea boss on Estevao. "He won't be available for Newcastle, and we'll see for the next one."

football.london has since learned that there is an expectation Estevao will be available for 'the next one' Maresca was referring to, a home clash with Aston Villa on December 27. The club are also hopeful Essugo will return to action soon.

The Portugal Under-21 international underwent surgery on a thigh injury back in September and was due to return this month but suffered another problem. A different issue than his thigh but it seems unlikely that we will see Essugo before Christmas.

Lavia, meanwhile, is still stuck in his injury nightmare. The 21-year-old limped off in Chelsea's draw with Qarabag in November and football.london revealed a few days later that the Belgian would miss at least a month with the quad problem.

Since that update, it has been well over a month. football.london asked Maresca on Monday for an update on Lavia, to which the Chelsea boss replied: "We don't know." A return for Lavia is certainly not imminent.

Likewise with Colwill. The England international had surgery on a serious knee injury in August, sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) problem during his first pre-season training session after the Club World Cup. Colwill is expected to miss the majority of the campaign, with ACL injuries typically ruling players out for between six and nine months.

As for Delap, he is not expected to play again this year . football.london understands the striker, who was signed for £30million in the summer transfer window, is expected to miss four weeks because of the shoulder injury he picked up in the draw with Bournemouth earlier in the month.

Despite Maresca's best efforts, with the Chelsea head coach's meticulous methods and tinkering with his line-ups to rotate and manage workloads, the club are missing several key players at the time of writing. Given Chelsea's unprecedentedly long 2024/25 campaign, though, the Blues boss has done well to keep the majority of his players on the pitch.

The likes of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Trevoh Chalobah, Pedro Neto and Marc Cucurella, to name just a few, have played a ridiculous amount of minutes in 2025. Yet, touch wood, have all avoided injury this season, even while some have been carrying knocks throughout the campaign.