Emerson ruled out for one month as Chelsea await Christensen prognosis

Chelsea left back Emerson’s (surprise) return from injury was rather short-lived on Sunday, after he (unsurprisingly) re-aggravated his hamstring and had to be withdrawn inside of the first 15 minutes. Chelsea then had to burn another first-half substitution after Andreas Christensen got hit in the back of the knee and limped off a few minutes before half-time, leaving Frank Lampard with just one change late on as the Blues tried to mount an ultimately unsuccessful comeback.

Lampard didn’t sound too optimistic about either player immediately following that 2-1 loss, and as he revealed today, does not expect Emerson back until after the October international break. Christensen, meanwhile, is still awaiting a formal diagnosis, but the problem is apparently not too severe, whatever that means.

“Andreas is not too severe. Hopefully he won’t be out for too long but I can’t give a timeframe. Emerson now won’t be back until the other side of the international break. It will be a few weeks because it is the reoccurrence of an injury so we have to be a bit careful with it.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC

Chelsea resume the season after that break on October 19, with a home game against Newcastle United, before hitting the road for three consecutive away games at Ajax, Burnley, and Watford, though there should be a Carabao Cup fourth round match between the last two as well, assuming Chelsea beat Grimsby Town tomorrow.

Christensen’s absence should be mitigated by the impending (hopefully) return of Antonio Rudiger, while Marcos Alonso should be able to deputize for Emerson, with perhaps young Ian Maatsen getting the nod in the League Cup.