{"id":4280,"date":"2026-05-05T15:04:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=4280"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:04:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:04:44","slug":"jesse-derry-says-chelsea-debut-was-a-dream-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=4280","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Derry says Chelsea debut was a &#8216;dream come true&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_65\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong>Jesse Derry says it was a \u201cdream come true\u201d to make his Chelsea debut despite being hospitalised after suffering a head injury. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old attacker made his first start in the Premier League on Monday afternoon as the Blues fell to a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>Derry was forced off just before halftime, however, after clashing heads with Zach Abbott.<\/p>\n<p>After a lengthy stoppage, during which he received oxygen on the pitch, he was stretchered off the pitch and replaced by Liam Delap as a concussion substitute.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea confirmed that he was \u201cconscious, talking and undergoing precautionary checks\u201d in hospital. He has since been released and the club will continue to monitor him.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Jesse Derry says Chelsea debut \u2018dream come true\u2019 despite horror clash<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cA dream come true to start at Stamford Bridge for my Premier League debut,\u201d Derry wrote on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cI\u2019d like to thank all the Chelsea medical staff, everyone at St Mary\u2019s Hospital, my teammates, and all the fans for their great support. I can\u2019t wait to be back playing in front of everyone very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>It was Derry\u2019s third senior appearance for Chelsea after coming off the bench twice in the FA Cup this season. The England U19 international joined the west London outfit on a four-year contract last summer after coming through the Crystal Palace academy.<\/p>\n<p>Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White and Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez were also involved in a nasty clash in the second half. Gibbs-White had to be replaced by Chris Wood just 20 minutes after coming on as a halftime substitute, although Forest confirmed he was not taken off due to concussion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Read \u2013\u00a0Sesko stats show summer signing settling at Man Utd<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>See Also \u2013 Premier League clubs with most away points in 2025\/26<\/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_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Twitter<\/a> | YouTube | TikTok<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\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>Jesse Derry says it was a \u201cdream come true\u201d to make his Chelsea debut despite&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4280","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\/4280","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=4280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}