Sarri gives initial positive assessment on Pedro’s shoulder injury

Chelsea recorded a solid, at times even dominant 1-0 victory in Thessaloniki on Thursday night, keeping the home side and their raucous fans largely quiet thanks to an early Willian goal and plenty of chances throughout the rest of the match.

That Chelsea weren’t able to add to lead will be concerning — more finishing woes! — but perhaps not as concerning as Pedro’s shoulder injury. The veteran winger, who’s enjoyed a great start to the season as Sarri’s first-choice right winger, picked up the injury in the dying minutes of the game. He was shoved from behind as he was chasing after a long touch at the end of a counter. PAOK goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis was quick off his line and got there first however. Pedro probably could’ve avoided the collision, but the shove from behind, for which Omar El Kaddouri rightly collected a yellow card, made that impossible.

Pedro stayed down for several minutes to receive treatment, then walked off gingerly and in obvious pain while the trainer held his left arm. Chelsea finished the last minute of the match with 10 men.

In his post-match press conference, Sarri confirmed that Pedro suffered a shoulder injury, but one that’s “probably” not very serious.

Of course, Sarri said similar things about Fabregas’s knee and Kovacic’s leg injuries as well, and the former missed over a month while the latter has missed at least one match so far.

While Willian has scored in two consecutive matches, we will need all hands on deck as we enter the busy part of the autumn and winter match calendar. Hopefully it is indeed nothing serious for Pedro.

UPDATE:

Pedro says he’s fine, too.