{"id":1078,"date":"2026-04-26T16:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:37:59","slug":"chelsea-starlets-season-over-but-injured-duo-could-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1078","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea starlet&#8217;s season over but injured duo could return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Chelsea interim head coach Calum MacFarlane revealed that Estevao Willian\u2019s season is over after suffering a hamstring injury. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Blues head to Wembley on Sunday to face Leeds United in the FA Cup semi-finals, with kickoff scheduled for 3pm BST.<\/p>\n<p>They will have to do so without Estevao after the Brazilian winger was forced off against Manchester United last week. It is hoped, however, that Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro will return to the fold this weekend. Palmer missed the Brighton game because of a minor injury, while Pedro was absent for the defeats against the Red Devils and the Seagulls.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Chelsea starlet\u2019s season over but injured duo could return<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cEstevao unfortunately won\u2019t play for us this season. He is going to be out for a little bit of time,\u201d MacFarlane said in his pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not sure how long he will be out for but he certainly won\u2019t play for us again this season, unfortunately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s really unfortunate for him, especially for someone so young and talented as he is but we are here to support him and be around him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0Chelsea caretaker \u2018gutted\u2019 about Liam Rosenior sacking<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cWith Joao and Cole, they both trained today and are in a good place. We don\u2019t know yet (whether they can feature on Sunday), but we have another day tomorrow to have a look at them and then make a call on them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope so, but it\u2019s important we give them time. We are going to train tomorrow, they will both be involved and we will make a call on them after that session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When asked if Estevao will be fit for the World Cup, MacFarlane responded: \u201cI\u2019m not sure on that if I\u2019m honest. He won\u2019t be available for us. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s very hopeful he can make the World Cup but I don\u2019t know on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0Eddie Howe has Chelsea admirers as Blues step up manager search<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>See Also \u2013\u00a0Fulham boss Marco Silva coy on Chelsea speculation<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Follow the Football Faithful on Social Media:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Facebook\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram\u00a0| <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FootyFaithful_\">Twitter<\/a> | YouTube | TikTok<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea interim head coach Calum MacFarlane revealed that Estevao Willian\u2019s season is over after suffering&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}