Joao Pedro breaks silence with clear message after Enzo Maresca reveals Chelsea injury concern

Joao Pedro has sent a clear Chelsea message ahead of the Champions League clash against Benfica after Enzo Maresca revealed he and two others were dealing with injury concerns. The Blues are enduring a tough spell, having picked up just one victory from their last five games in all competitions.

Red cards have played a key role in defeats to Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion, but prior to that, Bayern Munich and Brentford took points off Maresca's side. The only victory in September came in the Carabao Cup against Lincoln.

Injury issues have certainly not helped matters with Liam Delap, Dario Essugo and Levi Colwill the long-term absentees. Cole Palmer has also been plagued by a groin issue while Tosin Adarabioyo is the latest to pick up an issue.

Chelsea have two more games before the October international break begins, and both are at Stamford Bridge with Benfica and Liverpool as the visitors. With some key players already missing, Maresca could be forced to navigate those games without two regular starters.

"We have unfortunately many players out for injury," he admitted in a press conference on Monday. "This afternoon we're going to assess Moises Caicedo, Joao Pedro and Andrey Santos. They are all players unfortunately for us with some small problems.

"So we'll see if tomorrow they're going to be available. But we are for sure in this moment we have injuries but we have a squad enough in this moment to try to replace the injuries we have."

Despite Maresca's comments, Pedro and Caicedo were spotted in the training session held later that afternoon The latter has played every minute of Premier League football this season while Pedro, who has been managing a small issue for some time, has only not completed the full game on two separate occasions.

Following his appearance at Cobham, Pedro delivered an update to his Instagram story ahead of the Benfica game.

The Brazil international has posted two photos which show him completing a warm-up drill and he is all smiles in the sunshine. Pedro has not scored in his last four Chelsea appearances, but he has been impacted by being left up top by himself when the Blues have been reduced down to 10 men in their last fixtures.

That has resulted in Pedro having to cover a lot of ground, which would certainly explain why he may be dealing with an injury issue. However, playing 90 minutes against Brighton, his appearance in training and message on Instagram suggests he should be fine to start again.

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