‘I need to play!’ – Enzo Maresca drops subtle dig at Chelsea owners

Enzo Maresca has issued a subtle dig at the Chelsea hierarchy by suggesting that he may need to play against Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday evening.

The Blues face the high-flying League One outfit amid a slight injury crisis and Maresca has revealed that several players are in desperate need of a rest following a hectic start to the new campaign.

Levi Colwill, Liam Delap and Dario Essugo are all ruled out with long-term injury problems, while Cole Palmer suffered a groin issue during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.

Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia haven’t yet returned to full fitness either and Maresca has confirmed that Joao Pedro and Moises Caicedo both aren’t 100% fit.

Furthermore, Tosin Adarabioyo and Trevoh Chalobah may be forced to play against Lincoln, despite having racked up a combined 962 minutes of action so far this season.

When asked if he would like to rest the centre-back duo on Tuesday, Maresca told reporters (via BBC Sport): “I would love to rest both of them because they deserve to rest.

“The problem is that we also have Wes Fofana playing after a long time. So if we rest Tosin, if we rest Trev, and if we rest Wes, probably I need to play some part of the game!

“We don’t have defenders so some of them need to play.”

Chelsea decide against signing Levi Colwill replacement

Maresca was eager for Chelsea to sign a new centre-back following Colwill’s season-ending ACL injury, but the club opted to ignore his wishes and instead prioritised on bolstering their attacking options.

Jorrel Hato did arrive from Ajax in early August, however he is viewed as a back-up to Marc Cucurella and he hasn’t been seen since enduring a tough 45-minute cameo against Brentford two weeks ago.

As a result, Tosin, Chalobah and youngster Josh Acheampong are the only fully fit centre-back options available to Maresca, with Wesley Fofana’s minutes in need of being managed given his injury record and the aforementioned Badiashile still absent.

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