Chelsea loanee suffers 'bizarre injury' in debut training session for Premier League club

On deadline day, the defender was loaned to a club in London after being sidelined from Chelsea's first-team by Enzo Maresca.

Though the Blues were expecting offers upwards of £20million for Chalobah, no such bids were made and his loan deal at Palace does not include an option to buy.

Nevertheless, the 25-year-old is hoping to get his career back on track at Selhurst Park and it seemed likely that he would make his Eagles debut on Saturday when they take on Leicester City.

However, in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Oliver Glasner revealed that Chalobah’s loan spell had got off to an unfortunate start which could see him miss the next three games.

‘He injured his abdominal muscle in his first session with us. It’s a really strange injury,’ the Palace boss said.

‘He’s also not available tomorrow. It won’t take very long. He’s questionable for QPR and Man United as well.’

Chalobah’s absence leaves Palace, who play with a back-three, a little short on centre-back options with Rob Holding currently exiled from the first-team and unlikely to ever play for the club again.

Summer signing Chadi Riad also injured his knee during the Carabao Cup win over Norwich, with Glasner now confirming that he’s out for ‘eight to twelve weeks’.

In better news for the Eagles, who have taken just one point from their first three league games, striker Eddie Nketiah is fit and raring to go following his big money transfer from Arsenal.

‘Yes, he’s ready to start. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have spent about £25 million,’ Glasner added.

‘We don’t spend £25million for a player to be on the bench. He can play different positions – he’s very smart. He is a different profile to Jean-Philippe [Mateta].’

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