Chelsea suffer major injury blow as Benoit Badiashile to miss Mauricio Pochettino pre-season

Benoit Badiashile missed Chelsea's defeat to Manchester City after picking up an injury in training in the build up to facing the Premier League champions

Benoit Badiashile is set to be out for three months after suffering a groin injury. Frank Lampard revealed the injury happened in training last week ahead of facing Manchester City and football.london understands the resultant diagnosis will likely mean Badiashile misses pre-season and the beginning of next season.

The Frenchman joins the likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Armando Broja, Marc Cucurella, Ben Chilwell, Mateo Kovacic and N'Golo Kante who are out injured as Frank Lampard's defensive resources are stretched. The return of Kalidou Koulibaly for a brief appearance versus City will come as a relief to the Blues' caretaker boss.

The 21-year-old defender has put in a series of impressive displays since his £35million arrival in January but Chelsea's next manager, expected to be Mauricio Pochettino who was in London last week, will now be forced to wait to work the former Monaco star.

Pre-season will be crucial as the former Spurs boss looks to implement his philosophy on the Chelsea squad, and the Blues look to increase their capacity which has come under scrutiny in recent weeks from Lampard.

The Blues will still be able to call upon Thiago Silva and Wesley Fofana, while there has been uncertainty over the futures of Koulibaly and Trevoh Chalobah, perhaps opening a greater opportunity for Levi Colwill this summer.

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