Enzo Maresca will not be turning to promising academy striker to replace Nico Jackson | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has confirmed that he will not be turning to one of his academy strikers to cover the injury to Nicolas Jackson.

As well as Jackson, Marc Guiu is also injured as Maresca has a bit of a striker crisis on his hands.

The Italian was speaking to the media yesterday ahead of their game against Brighton in the Premier League tonight, and the embargoed section of the press conference has also now been released with more quotes to join the ones below.

EXCLUSIVE! Chelsea have laid down ground work in deal to sign striker BEFORE Club World Cup!

Chelsea lost 2-1 to Brighton on Saturday night in the fourth round of the FA Cup after being a goal ahead early doors. They will be hoping for a better outcome in the league as they battle for Champions League qualification this season.

Maresca has already been explaining that he could setup differently on Friday due to injuries to his only two strikers, Marc Guiu and Nicolas Jackson.

The Blues boss has also explained why he said he thought Jackson was initially ‘OK’ after his injury but he is not out for 6-8 weeks.

Washington will still go on loan

Deivid Washington will still go out on loan this season

One option for Maresca was to block the proposed loan move of academy striker Deivid Washington and bring him in to the first team squad.

However, Maresca himself has confirmed that he will not be using that option and the player will still go out on loan back to his former club.

On whether there are any plans to block Deivid Washington’s loan to Brazilian side Santos, Maresca simply responded: “No. He is in talks.”

So there you have it, Maresca will likely just use Christopher Nkunku as a 9 mostly until Jackson returns.

Quotes via Kieran Gill of The Daily Mail.