Jorginho scores but Emerson injured in Italy win — UPDATE: ‘not serious’

UPDATE:

Emerson claims that injury is “nothing serious”, while earlier Italy head coach Roberto Mancini said Emerson came off to prevent anything “worse” from happening.

I still don’t think we’re completely out of the woods on this one, but hopefully the one week is enough time for Emerson to recover for Saturday’s game at Wolves.

PREVIOUSLY:

Chelsea’s injury woes continue with Emerson Palmieri picking up a muscular strain just seven minutes into Italy’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Finland on Sunday. He was unable to continue and was replaced by Alessandro Florenzi.

Initial reports describe the injury, which occurred without any contact, as a “thigh strain”, which would surely rule out the Chelsea first-choice left back for at least a few weeks.

Emerson, who has been one of Chelsea’s better-performing players this season and was reportedly beginning talks over a new contract, and was in the self-described “best moment” of his career, looked absolutely devastated to be forced off. If he were to miss any time, his natural replacement would be Marcos Alonso, who’s barely featured so far this season thanks to Emerson’s consistent performances.

This is why we can’t have nice things — and although some are saying the injury is not too serious, muscle strains can linger quite annoyingly.

For what it’s worth, Italy went on to beat Finland, 2-1, with Chelsea midfielder Jorginho converting a late penalty to keep the Azzurri perfect after six games in Euro 2020 qualifying.

Elsewhere, Andreas Christensen featured for Denmark again, helping keep another clean sheet in a 0-0 draw with Georgia, while Kepa Arrizabalaga made way for David De Gea in Spain’s 4-0 win over Faroe Islands. Kepa had started five consecutive Euro 2020 qualifiers before taking the backseat today.