{"id":8980,"date":"2026-05-16T03:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8980"},"modified":"2026-05-16T03:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:50:05","slug":"coaching-while-injured-how-hes-helped-wesley-fofana-and-talks-over-new-deal-inside-levi-colwills-long-lonely-road-back-as-kieran-gill-reveals-chelsea-centre-back-is-in-prime-position-to-make-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8980","title":{"rendered":"Coaching while injured, how he’s helped Wesley Fofana and talks over new deal: Inside Levi Colwill’s long, lonely road back – as KIERAN GILL reveals Chelsea centre back is in prime position to make England World Cup squad"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The world was sitting at Levi\u00a0Colwill’s feet. Literally, in a sense. The Club World Cup trophy was on the floor in front of him, and Chelsea’s central defender was crouching down, posing for a picture with an England flag draped over his shoulders. Then it happened.<\/p>\n

The ACL \u2013 three letters that no footballer ever wishes to hear because the anterior cruciate ligament is immediately associated with seasons ending.<\/p>\n

It is only because\u00a0Colwill\u2019s injury occurred so long ago \u2013 on the first day of pre-season training at Cobham, three weeks after beating Paris Saint-Germain to become a world champion last summer \u2013 that he has returned in time to try to help Chelsea lift another trophy in the FA Cup.<\/p>\n

That is good for his club, and, potentially, for his country. We are told Thomas Tuchel is set to attend this final between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium and, while he will have his pick of Englishmen to pore over, particular attention should be paid to\u00a0Colwill.<\/p>\n

Tuchel had to submit a 55-man squad to FIFA by midnight on Monday this week. It is only provisional, but it is from this pool that he will select his final 26 players to represent England at the World Cup. The FA have not announced who was chosen, but Daily Mail Sport <\/span>can reveal Colwill\u00a0is among those initially included in Tuchel\u2019s long list of 55.<\/p>\n

That news alone \u2013 confirmation that Tuchel is continuing to consider him \u2013 will have acted as a confidence booster for the 23-year-old after a long, occasionally lonely, comeback.<\/p>\n

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\"Levi <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Levi Colwill (left) was crouching over the Club World Cup trophy when his ACL gave way<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"It <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

It has been a long, sometimes lonely road back to Chelsea’s first team for Colwill <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"And <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

And we can reveal that he is on Thomas Tuchel’s 55-man longlist for the England World Cup squad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

They love\u00a0Colwill\u00a0around Chelsea. More than once, they have had to inform rival clubs that he is not for sale, including Bayern Munich. <\/p>\n

It is also believed\u00a0Colwill\u00a0and Chelsea have been in talks regarding his contract, with Reece James and Moises Caicedo among those recently tied down to new deals which will take them into the 2030s.\u00a0Colwill\u00a0is contracted until 2029 currently, and the club have the option to trigger an extra 12 months.<\/p>\n

It is not only because of what\u00a0Colwill\u00a0brings on the field, but his leadership away from it. While sidelined, sources within Chelsea say he personally volunteered to help his club with community work, such as attending a Christmas lunch for local charities at Stamford Bridge. <\/p>\n

He has been with the club since he was eight years old, so is Cobham through and through.<\/p>\n

When Calum McFarlane was installed as interim in January after Enzo Maresca\u2019s exit on New Year\u2019s Day,\u00a0Colwill\u00a0also asked whether he could accompany the squad for their 1-1 draw away at Manchester City, to help the caretaker coaches try to maintain high morale. <\/p>\n

It was in\u00a0January when\u00a0Colwill\u00a0returned to modified training for his club. They upped his workload in February, and upped it again in March, and it was at the beginning of April when he returned to full training.<\/p>\n

That same month, he played 60 minutes for Chelsea\u2019s Under 21s in a behind-closed-doors fixture against Liberia\u2019s Under 20s national team, then a full 90 for the Under 21s in a Premier League 2 win over Middlesbrough. <\/p>\n

Two of Chelsea\u2019s five sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Sam Jewell, were there to watch him captain the youngsters in that second fixture.<\/p>\n

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\"Colwill <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Colwill played the full 90 minutes of Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at Anfield last week, earning praise from Calum McFarlane and helping out his defensive partner Wesley Fofana (right)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Coming through those matches unscathed convinced Chelsea he was ready for a May return to playing in the Premier League. His half-time introduction in a 3-1 loss to Nottingham Forest marked his first appearance of the season for the senior side, more than nine months on from his last.<\/p>\n

He followed that up last week by completing the entirety of a 1-1 draw away at Liverpool, and was described by McFarlane as the best player on the pitch. <\/p>\n

Even Wesley Fofana, whose form has faltered for too long, looked immediately better with his left-sided partner by his side. <\/p>\n

And now, to Wembley. It is a big opportunity for\u00a0Colwill, facing City, with Erling Haaland his opponent, in front of Tuchel, less than a week before 55 is trimmed to 26.<\/p>\n

It is tough to say where Chelsea would be had\u00a0Colwill\u00a0not injured his ACL. Higher than ninth in the Premier League, presumably. Sources inside Cobham do say they believe his absence is one reason why they have failed to live up to their moniker of world champions.<\/p>\n

Colwill\u00a0is that important to his club \u2013 so important that when searching for the beginning of the end of Maresca\u2019s time in charge, we might even find it on August 4, 2025, the day this defender damaged his ACL. <\/p>\n

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\"Saturday's <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday’s FA Cup final is a big opportunity for Colwill, facing Manchester City, with Erling Haaland his opponent, in front of Tuchel, less than a week before 55 is trimmed to 26<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Certainly the timeline tells a story of how highly he was rated by Maresca and the tension which was brewing between the head coach and his hierarchy at the time.<\/p>\n

August 7<\/span> \u2013 Maresca revealed at his morning press conference how\u00a0Colwill\u00a0had picked up a problem, and it was in an answer to a question he had been asked on how many more signings he would like to make that month. By the afternoon, Chelsea had confirmed it was his ACL.<\/p>\n

August 15<\/span> \u2013 Maresca doubled down, explaining\u00a0Colwill\u2019s crucial role in Chelsea\u2019s build-up, namely as the central player in a 3-2-5 set-up when the team had possession. He even cited how Fofana tried to play 45 minutes in his specific position away at Bournemouth and that it was \u2018probably one of the worst halves\u2019 he had seen since taking charge. He added Benoit Badiashile tried the same in the Conference League final when they were losing 1-0 to Real Betis at half-time, then \u2018we changed with Levi and won 4-1\u2019.<\/p>\n

August 21<\/span> \u2013 Daily Mail Sport<\/span> arrived a little early at Cobham and bumped into Maresca pulling up in his Mercedes-Benz people carrier. His young son hopped out of the car with him. \u2018New signing?\u2019 we asked. \u2018Yes! It\u2019s my new centre back!\u2019\u00a0Maresca replied.<\/p>\n

Of course, Chelsea never signed a replacement for\u00a0Colwill, which disappointed Maresca, and his successor Liam Rosenior never got to use him at all. But now he is back, with McFarlane hoping he can help them lift the FA Cup \u2013 and leave Tuchel with a decision to make.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world was sitting at Levi\u00a0Colwill’s feet. Literally, in a sense. The Club World Cup…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8980","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\/8980","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=8980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}