Chelsea cannot recall Trevoh Chalobah from Crystal Palace loan as Enzo Maresca considers options | OneFootball

Other loans could be cut short amid injury issues

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has left the door open to further loan recalls this month, but Trevoh Chalobah will not prove the answer to the club’s centre-back injury crisis.

The Blues are light at the heart of defence heading into the second half of the season, after Maresca confirmed lengthy spells on the sidelines for both Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana.

Fofana could miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury sustained against Aston Villa at the start of last month, while Badiashile, who had briefly stepped up as his deputy, will not return until February at the earliest after suffering a hamstring problem of his own.

On Friday, the Blues confirmed that 19-year-old defender Aaron Anselmino has been recalled from his loan spell at Boca Juniors, having been sent straight back to the Argentine outfit after signing for Chelsea last summer.

Anselmino is not expected to play an immediate first-team role, but asked whether he was considering bringing any other loan players back to Cobham this month, Maresca said: “I don’t know. Probably with the problems we have now with central defenders, we can think about some profiles like that.

Trevoh Chalobah has impressed for Palace this season

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Chalobah, who joined Palace on a season-long loan on August’s deadline day, will be ineligible for tomorrow’s meeting with his parent club at Selhurst Park but has become a regular under Oliver Glasner this season.

The 25-year-old has started all but one of the Eagles’s last 13 Premier League games, scoring three goals in that time, and on Friday, Glasner hinted that he is keen to make the deal permanent.

Recalling Chalobah has been mooted as a short-term solution to Chelsea’s shortage at centre-back but it is understood that his loan agreement did not include a mid-season break clause.

There are also no plans to recall academy graduate Alfie Gilchrist, who is enjoying a strong season playing primarily as a right-back on loan at Sheffield United in the Championship.

Another young defender impressing in the second tier is Bashir Humphreys, but his loan deal to Burnley includes an option-to-buy in the summer and will not be cut short.

Marc Guiu is set for more minutes

Zac Goodwin/PA Wire

Meanwhile, Maresca has suggested that Marc Guiu could be set for a more prominent role during the second half of the season.

Guiu, who was signed from Barcelona last summer, enjoyed a strong end to the Conference League group stage and is that competition’s top scorer with six goals.

However, he has not made a league appearance since the opening day of the season and has been linked with a loan move to Spain amid fears his development could stall without regular playing time, with Chelsea not back in European action until March.

The 18-year-old is behind both Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku in the centre-forward pecking order, but Maresca hinted that, with the goals suddenly drying up for his side, Guiu could be more involved from hereon in.

“We have a young striker that is Marc Guiu, who is doing very good in the Conference League,” Marecsa said, when asked whether the Blues could make a move for a striker in this month’s transfer window. “I didn’t give him enough minutes in the Premier League to prove it. Hopefully, we can start to give him some minutes very soon because he is a good profile for us.”