The reason Fofana has deleted all references to the club from his social media

A £70million Chelsea outcast has scrubbed out any references to Chelsea on Instagram.

The castaway has retained pictures of himself at former clubs and his national team but eliminated any sign that he plays for Chelsea.

Wesley Fofana, the man in question, does still follow them and his team-mates but the erasure has caught the eyes of eagle-eyed fans, who wonder as to its reasoning.

Sources close to Fofana's camp insist to Daily Mail Sport that there is no issue with Chelsea and that a representative of the Frenchman is simply working on his Instagram page.

He was left on the bench for Chelsea's 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday as Enzo Maresca opted for youngster Josh Acheampong and Trevoh Chalobah instead.

And opportunities may be hard to come by this campaign as Enzo Maresca has made it clear that he wants to sign another centre-back after Levi Colwill's ACL injury.

Fans have noticed that Fofana whipped out his deletion strategy back when he was at Leicester in a bid to force through a move.

Though he has since reinstated posts about the Foxes, the 24-year-old binned any references to them in 2022 as he tried to leave.

At the time he also posted a cryptic message in French: 'My father told me you're going to annoy a lot of people when you start doing what's best for you and I've begun to realise it.'

It worked, too, as that summer he won his £70m move to the Blues, though he has since endured three troubled seasons.

Yoane Wissa has done something similar in recent days, removing all traces of Brentford from his Instagram and even unfollowing the club as he looks to engineer a move to Newcastle.

Fofana has been one of the most injury-hit players in the division since his move to London, missing 73 out of 115 Premier League games directly because of injury or surgery.

He was not able to play a single minute of the 2023-24 campaign due to an ACL injury and surgery.

And it seems that Maresca does not have much confidence in him to perform the central centre-back role when the Blues switch to a back three.

Asked if Fofana could perform that role, the manager said last week: 'Wes played 45 minutes in that position.

'It was the first half against Bournemouth away. Probably one of the worst halves since we started.

'And Benoit [Badiashile] playing in the middle, Conference League final, first half. We were losing 1-0. Then we changed with Levi and we won 4-1, so it's not the same [as Colwill].

Maresca added: 'The club know exactly what I think.

'I think we need a central defender. We are looking for an internal solution but as I said, the club know exactly what I think.'