Chelsea reportedly intend to retain the services of defender Trevoh Chalobah for the 2023-24 campaign.
Since the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino as head coach, the Blues have sold experienced right-back and centre-back Cesar Azpilicueta and Kalidou Koulibaly.
With Levi Colwill having been promoted to the first-team squad on the back of his impressive loan spell with Brighton & Hove Albion, he has effectively taken Koulibaly's spot in the senior ranks.
That has, in turn, created uncertainty regarding the future of Chalobah, despite the academy graduate proving to be a valuable squad option for various different managers.
Chalobah made as many as 33 appearances in all competitions last season, including 25 in the Premier League, yet some of those outings came in a back three or at right-back.
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Under Pochettino, Chelsea will start the season with a back four, which could have theoretically reduced the amount of game time that Chalobah receives in a season where Chelsea are not participating in Europe.
However, according to the Evening Standard, Chelsea now have little interest in parting ways with the 24-year-old ahead of the upcoming season.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Wesley Fofana had sustained a serious knee injury in training, once which has required reconstructive ACL surgery.
As a result, the France international will miss the remainder of 2023 and may be absent for the entire campaign if Chelsea opt against rushing the £70m man back from another issue with his knee.
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In the short term, Bashir Humphreys is next in line to be promoted to the first-team setup and he has travelled with the rest of the squad to the United States for five friendlies.
From Chalobah's perspective, he is effectively now regarded as third choice with Benoit Badiashile also missing Chelsea's pre-season fixtures due to injury.
Furthermore, Colwill only finished representing England Under-21s a matter of 11 days ago and he, too, is expected to miss the opening games of the summer schedule.
Chalobah has made a total of 63 appearances for Chelsea across the last two seasons, scoring four goals and providing one assist.
Darren Plant
