Chelsea Midfielder Seals Deadline Day Loan Exit Despite Midfield Depth Worries | OneFootball

A busy deadline day for Chelsea as the club finalises several deals.

Chelsea midfielder Dario Essugo has joined RC Strasbourg on a season-long loan.

It was reported in early August that Essugo was open to leaving Chelsea on loan despite the club’s initial plan to keep him in the squad for the 2026/27 season.

It is mostly because the 21-year-old desperately needed minutes to regain his touch.

Essugo joined Chelsea from Portuguese side Sporting CP for £18.5 million last summer and had a rough start to his career at Stamford Bridge after sustaining a thigh injury on international duty with Portugal in September.

He had to undergo surgery and was sidelined for four months until January. It did not end there. After making the bench in Chelsea’s FA Cup third-round win over Charlton Athletic in January, the midfielder suffered another setback in training. This time, it forced him to miss another 45 days of action.

In total, Essugo missed 37 games for Chelsea due to injuries last term. He made just five appearances across all competitions, in which he impressively bagged two assists.

The new season offered the young midfielder a new start at Chelsea under new manager Xabi Alonso. He could not just magically jump ahead of the midfield pecking order, however.

Strasbourg offer realistic playing chances that Chelsea do not

While Enzo Fernandez is now set to join Manchester City for £125m, Chelsea still have Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Valentin Barco, Jordan Henderson, and captain Reece James as midfield options. Another right-back, Malo Gusto, also featured in midfield against Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend.

That said, Caicedo and Henderson are nursing injuries, while Lavia and James have poor fitness records, so it would have made sense for Chelsea to keep Essugo. But it is still hard to blame Essugo for wanting to play regular football elsewhere after last season.

After the sales of Barco, Diego Moreira, Julio Enciso, and several others, Strasbourg can likely provide decent minutes for Essugo.

On the other hand, Chelsea may be a bit thin in midfield with both Fernandez and Essugo leaving on deadline day. It remains unclear whether Chelsea will bring in another midfielder before the summer transfer window officially closes at 11pm UK time on Tuesday, September 1.

Chelsea are reported to have made moves for AS Roma’s Manu Kone and AS Monaco’s Lamine Camara, but neither proved successful.

Essugo will join fellow Chelsea teammates Filip Jorgensen and Genesis Antwi, who joined Strasbourg on loan earlier this summer.

Essugo also fills the last available slot in Chelsea’s six allowed international loans under FIFA rules. The other five are Jorgensen (on loan at Strasbourg), Benoit Badiashile (Napoli), Jesse Derry (Sporting CP), Mamadou Sarr (Real Sociedad), and Robert Sanchez (Como).

Antwi is exempt from the quota because he is an Under-21, club-trained player.