Huge decision over Chelsea midfielder who now has chance to impress new coach | OneFootball

France’s Olympics squad was announced weeks ago, and while some Chelsea players like Malo Gusto were denied the chance to join Thierry Henry’s group by the club, Lesley Ugochukwu was given the green light to head to Paris.

But this morning it’s been announced that Ugochukwu is one of four players called up to be returned to “reserve” status. They will continue to train with the French team, but can now be freely recalled by their club. In order to play at the games, they will have to replace one of the players who made the final group.

Players like Gusto needed a break after an intense season, but Ugochukwu had a lot of injury disruption, and clearly the club’s idea was to get him playing in competitive games while his peers were still going through preseason work. It’s somewhat surprising he’s not been included in the final group, given he has more senior experience than the majority of them.

Chelsea have to weigh up the risk and reward

Ugochukwu will have been hoping for a chance to play for his country, we’re sure. But this preseason is huge for him, and it may well be that getting back to Chelsea to work with new manager Enzo Maresca is a wise move.

It will be interesting to see how Chelsea and Ugochukwu respond to this decision. Will they let him stay, hoping he gets called up? Or does the prospect of him simply being a reserve in line to play 0 minutes change the equation and make it unjustifiable for him to miss weeks of preparation for this season?

Competition for minutes in midfield is ridiculous at the moment, following the signing of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and every sessions on the training field matters to these players trying to impress their new coach.