{"id":21461,"date":"2026-07-26T07:25:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21461"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:25:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:25:58","slug":"xabi-alonso-handed-double-injury-update-after-chelsea-squad-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21461","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso handed double injury update after Chelsea squad decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_9f853e\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">Chelsea are in Sydney, Australia, for the opening leg of their pre-season tour and new manager Xabi Alonso already has injury problems to contend with<\/h2>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"34353158\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Xabi Alonso \" loading=\"eager\" sizes=\"(max-width: 508px) 508px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34353158.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/0_GettyImages-2285596855-1.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34353158.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s508\/0_GettyImages-2285596855-1.jpg 508w, https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34353158.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/0_GettyImages-2285596855-1.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.football.london\/article34353158.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/0_GettyImages-2285596855-1.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"Xabi Alonso barking instructions\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Xabi Alonso barking instructions<cite aria-label=\"Image: Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Geovany Quenda is expected to join up with the Chelsea squad on their pre-season tour next week after picking up a minor injury on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The 19-year-old winger is said to have impressed new Blues manager Xabi Alonso in the Blues&#8217; behind-closed-door friendly victories over Crawley Town and Bromley but picked up a small problem in the latter match. Quenda arrived at Cobham earlier in the summer after Chelsea reached a pre-agreement with Sporting CP in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Quenda will not join up with the squad for the Australian leg of the pre-season tour but is set to fly out to Asia, either in Hong Kong, Malaysia or Indonesia. However, Emmanuel Emegha will not take any part of the tour after the Netherlands international, who also joined on a pre-agreed deal this summer, suffered a hamstring injury in the Bromley win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE! <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Emegha is set to miss a few weeks of action and will be aiming to get back on the pitch before the new season starts on August 25. While the injuries are a blow for Alonso, who would have been keen on seeing the new signings in action, it has opened up a couple of opportunities for others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Omari Kellyman was a last-minute inclusion in the Chelsea squad, sources say, with the former Aston Villa youngster being given a great chance to impress his new manager. Going into the tour, <strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">football.london <\/strong>was told the plan is for Kellyman to move elsewhere on loan for the 2026\/27 season with heavy interest from numerous Championship clubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Kellyman&#8217;s entourage, however, are reluctant to accept an offer too early in the summer transfer window and block any possible opportunities further down the line. The 20-year-old is understood to be keen on moving on loan in Europe.<\/p>\n<section aria-busy=\"true\" aria-label=\"Loading poll\" class=\"Poll_poll-container__66GSR\"\/><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea are in Sydney, Australia, for the opening leg of their pre-season tour and new&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21461","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\/21461","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=21461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}