Enzo Maresca delivers Wesley Fofana Chelsea update after freak injury vs Atalanta

Wesley Fofana came off the bench at half-time before being forced off in the second-half in Chelsea's Champions League loss to Atalanta

Enzo Maresca has claimed he hopes Wesley Fofana will be available to play for Chelsea against Everton on Saturday after he was forced off with a bizarre eye injury against Atalanta.

Fofana was initially named on the bench in Bergamo with Benoit Badiashile partnering Trevoh Chalobah at the heart of defence. The latter picked up a yellow card in the first half and Maresca sacrificed him with Fofana at the break.

After Gianluca Scamacca levelled the scoring for Atalanta, Chelsea were handed another injury concern with Fofana forced off. After intercepting a counter-attack from the home side, the Frenchman was accidentally caught by the boot of Scamacca in the eye.

Fofana received treatment on the pitch before attempting to continue. However, moments later, he went down again and was replaced by Tosin Adarabioyo. "He had a problem with his eye," Maresca said.

"He struggled to see a little bit but hopefully he can be available for Saturday." Tosin Adarabioyo replaced Fofana, a substitute that stopped Estevao coming off the bench. "The change of Tosin was because we needed to change Wes," he added.

"For sure, with one more change there would have been a chance of Estevao or Andrey to come on and potentially change the game."

After Fofana was replaced, Maresca opted to set his team up in a bizarre way with Malo Gusto and Reece James sitting in front of the defence and Josh Acheampong playing at right-back. Moises Caicedo played as a third centre-back, often advancing into midfield when they had possession.

Unfortunately, the tactical risk did not pay off, as Atalanta scored the winner just six minutes after the switch. Charles De Ketelaere's effort took two deflections before beating Robert Sanchez to hand Chelsea their second defeat of the Champions League campaign.

"After the goal we conceded, we lost control," Maresca said on the defeat. "Second-half, we had two good chances to score the second one. When we conceded the 1-1, we lost some concentration. We can avoid both of the goals we conceded. They're easy goals."

He added: "Probably we need two wins. Sixteen points might get you top eight, I'm not sure. The next one, for sure, if we want to finish top eight, we need to win both."