Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic suffered injuries at the start of Chelsea’s Premier League match against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
In Chelsea’s EFL Cup match against City earlier in the season, Sterling entered as a substitute; however, on Thursday, the 28-year-old was selected for Graham Potter’s starting lineup against his former team in the Premier League.
Owing to Mason Mount’s absence from the game due to an injury received during Wednesday’s training session, the England international appeared to be starting in a central position behind Kai Havertz. But within the first three minutes, Sterling was off with what appeared to be a hamstring injury from a challenge from John Stones.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took over for Sterling as he failed in his bid to run the issue down the touchline.
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16 minutes later, Pulisic sustained an injury after Stones made a decisive tackle to stop him from charging into the box, adding to Potter’s injury woes. Pulisic was replaced by Carney Chukwuemeka.
Reece James, Ben Chilwell, and N’Golo Kante were all long-term absentees before the World Cup, which hasn’t helped Chelsea’s cause this season. James has been sidelined for around a month as a result of an injury he sustained upon returning to play last week.
Chelsea’s aspirations of competing for a top-four finish may be further harmed by the losses of Mount, Pulisic, and Sterling, and this may lead them to intensify their efforts to recruit Enzo Fernandez of Benfica.
