Joao Pedro explains his secrets on playing twice a week for Chelsea at top level | OneFootball

Considering the busy few years of transfers they’ve had, it seems amazing that Chelsea are already stretched just a few weeks into the season.

Up front they signed Joao Pedro and Liam Delap, but the fact that they let Nicolas Jackson go just as Delap picked up an injury (and the fact that Marc Guiu isn’t trusted at all) has meant that JP has already been forced to play almost every minute.

JP on extra work keeping him fit

Joao Pedro lashes in a shot. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

In an interesting interview with Sky Sports over the weekend, the Brazil striker has explained how he’s working extra to try and keep himself fit and able to play what is likely to be a record number of minutes in a single campaign for him:

“I try to work with the guys in the physio [department] here a lot to be able to give 100 per cent to every game,” Joao Pedro explained.

“In the days when we train in the morning, always in the afternoon I try to do something to recover faster. Or, if I feel a little bit of pain in one area, in order to be fit as soon as possible to be ready for the next game.”

“I need to try to be fit because now I think I’m going to play more and more games, get more minutes, but the club helped me a lot to be able to be on the pitch for every match,” he concluded.

Maresca must learn to cope without striker or risk losing him for long period

Manager Enzo Maresca admitted before the Bayern Munich game this week that JP had played despite telling the coach he wasn’t fully fit. That can’t continue, or we risk losing our main number 9 as well as our backup.

Much like the situation with Cole Palmer, Chelsea must adapt to playing without some of these key players. They aren’t going to be able to play 70 matches at such high level.