Chelsea have announced that Aaron Anselmino has been recalled from his loan spell at Boca Juniors.
During the summer transfer window, the Blues completed a deal worth an alleged £15.6m to sign the prospect from the Argentine giants.
Rather than immediately making the journey to West London, the 19-year-old remained in his homeland to continue his development in Boca Juniors' first team.
The initial plan was for Anselmino to remain at La Bombonera for a further 12 months, an arrangement that appeared to make sense once he featured regularly during the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign.
However, on the back of reports in December that Anselmino was going to have his loan stint ended, Chelsea have now confirmed that decision.
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Anselmino back at Cobham
Anselmino only spent the briefest of periods in England when finalising his transfer at the club's Cobham training facilities in the summer.
The centre-back will now return there to go through an acclimitisation period to bed into his surroundings over the coming weeks.
Although initial reports indicated that Anselmino would become a part of Enzo Maresca's squad, BBC Sport reporter Nizaar Kinsella has suggested that will not be the case.
Anselmino will instead be 'built up to cope with the demands of the English game'. The player has already suffered a number of muscle injuries throughout 2024.
There have been suggestions in the past that Chelsea wanted their medical staff to oversee the next phase of Anselmino's development for that reason.
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What next?
Having played 18 times for one of the biggest teams in South American football, there does not need to be any rush with pushing for extra game time for Anselmino.
A loan move to a European club has been suggested, yet that may be dependent on whether there are realistic expectations of Anselmino being part of Chelsea's senior squad during 2025-26.
No decision is likely to be made until the back end of the January transfer window, with an appearance in Premier League 2 a possibility before then.
Darren Plant
