Chelsea facing defensive transfer dilemma after Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile injury blows | OneFootball

Blues must choose whether to stick or twist with remaining centre-back options, while recalling Trevoh Chalobah is also an option

It was with a look of deliberate bemusement that Oliver Glasner poured cold water on the idea that Chelsea might have to recall Trevoh Chalobah this month amid a centre-back “injury crisis” which, clearly, he feels has been overblown.

“I could see that there was [Axel] Disasi and Tosin [Adarabioyo] on the bench,” said the Crystal Palace boss following Saturday’s 1-1 draw, in which - amid the absences of Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile due to hamstring problems - Chelsea gave youngster Josh Acheampong a full Premier League debut alongside Levi Colwill at centre-back.

So there it is, a “crisis” cast into a bit of perspective by a manager who plays three centre-backs every week and rarely seems to have more than four to pick from. As problems go, Chelsea’s is very much of the footballing first world. Still, they have every right to address it.

Dilemma: Enzo Maresca must decide whether Chelsea need to sign a replacement for the injured Wesley Fofana this month

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With a rare clear week now before what should be a straightforward home FA Cup tie against Morecambe, those are the conversations going on behind the scenes at Cobham, Enzo Maresca and the club’s hierarchy assessing what, if anything, can be done to reinforce the defensive ranks in this month’s transfer window.

It is a complicated picture full of moving parts, not least because of the uncertainty over return dates for Badiashile (“at least February”, Maresca said on Friday) and Fofana (who could miss the rest of the season, according to his manager, but who, according to reports in France, is confident of being back much sooner). The summer’s Club World Cup campaign also needs to be accounted for.

Chalobah’s loan to Palace does have a recall clause, but is surely not the answer. There is a reason the 25-year-old was deemed expendable last summer and it would be harsh on the player to be dragged from what has been a successful stint in south London to warm the Chelsea bench. It would also surely damage any chance of a pure profit-boosting permanent sale in the summer, on which Glasner is keen.

Acheampong’s performance at Selhurst Park, meanwhile, was the highlight of another frustrating afternoon for Maresca, whose team are now winless in four matches and suddenly in danger of slipping out of the top four. The 18-year-old has played most of his senior football at full-back in cup appearances this season, but did not look out of place at the heart of defence.

Still, it would be a risk for Chelsea to head into the second half of the season relying on the teenager as a regular option, as Maresca himself all-but acknowledged.

That Maresca turned to Acheampong for a game his side needed desperately to win to correct their blip did not exactly speak volumes of his faith in more senior reserves. Tosin has looked solid when called upon this season but was monstered by Liam Delap at Ipswich just before New Year; Disasi has been anything but and feels likely to leave in the summer.

So, do Chelsea bat on with that trio of alternatives - to become four once Badiashile returns - accepting that every team gets injuries and hoping that at least one can step up consistently? Tosin is the likeliest candidate if so.

It may sound ridiculous given the options still at Maresca’s disposal, but there is a genuine case for Chelsea to spend big on a new defender

Or do they capitalise on the window being open and get the chequebook out in a big way now, even having insisted that a cycle of lavish recruitment is over? It may sound ridiculous given the options still at Maresca’s disposal, but there is a genuine case for the latter.

Fofana has now seen three consecutive seasons heavily or completely disrupted by injury and one cannot buy Maresca’s insistence that his latest problem is not in any way linked to the previous two. The 24-year-old is understandably fragile given his history of serious knee problems and in some ways it is surprising he enjoyed such a clean run through the first four months of the season, after so long out.

Being left out of the Conference League group stage squad may have helped, but if Chelsea are in the Champions League next season, Maresca will want to rely on a first-choice centre-back partnership fit to start together twice a week. Fofana has managed just 32 of a possible 125 matches since joining Chelsea two-and-a-half years ago.

Reality, though, says finding a replacement of Fofana’s class mid-season would be hard - maybe impossible - and certainly not cheap.