{"id":11027,"date":"2026-05-19T23:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11027"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:53:11","slug":"chelsea-need-to-be-careful-with-colwills-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11027","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea &#8216;need to be careful&#8217; with Colwill&#8217;s comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"entry-thumbnail\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/londonfootballnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1077541530-678x381.webp\" alt=\"\" title=\"1077541530\"\/><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong><span class=\"strong-pub\">Chelsea interim manager Calum McFarlane<\/span> has insisted the club must manage Levi Colwill carefully after his recent return from a serious injury lay-off, ahead of Tuesday\u2019s London derby against Tottenham.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old defender, who has broken into the senior England set-up, started back-to-back fixtures against Anfield and in Saturday\u2019s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City. Those appearances marked his first two starts of the season following a lengthy spell on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p>With a rapid three-day turnaround before facing local rivals Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, McFarlane admitted that the centre-back\u2019s workload needs strict monitoring before a final decision is made on his involvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to be careful with Levi,\u201d McFarlane said at his pre-match press conferemve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s obviously coming off the back of a very serious injury. He\u2019s performed well in those two games. We\u2019ll see how he looks today, we\u2019ll see how he reports, and we\u2019ll make a decision on that. But definitely, I agree we have to manage him right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"XABI ALONSO EXCITEMENT! Calum McFarlane reacts to Alonso&#039;s Chelsea appointment\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eGb6SCrZGXI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Colwill\u2019s return has provided a significant tactical boost for the Blues, offering the direct line-breaking distribution from deep that Chelsea have lacked for large stretches of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>McFarlane highlighted the immense upside of having the academy graduate back at his disposal, both on and off the pitch, as the squad prepares for its final home match of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been great to have Levi back\u2014great for English football as well,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got a really, really talented, really high-potential player here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInjuries are a part of it, and he\u2019s shown really good mental strength and character to come through that and perform away at Anfield and in an FA Cup final. So yeah, really, really excited about Levi. He\u2019s added a lot to the team, not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well. It\u2019s been a brilliant two games for him, and hopefully, he can finish the season strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea head into the encounter looking to maximize their point tally from their final two league matches to secure European football for next season, while Tottenham arrive still battling for Premier League survival.<\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings above via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings below via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons above via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons below via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts below via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea interim manager Calum McFarlane has insisted the club must manage Levi Colwill carefully after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11027","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\/11027","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=11027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}