Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson has certainly been keeping busy as he continues recovery from injury. The 23-year-old has missed the last three games because of a hamstring issue with Enzo Maresca struggling significantly to find a suitable replacement.
Summer signing Marc Guiu would have been perfect but he has also suffered a muscular issue which has seen Christopher Nkunku and Pedro Neto deployed up top with varying success. For games in the Premier League and FA Cup against Brighton, Nkunku led the line, but with limited success as he kept dropping deep.
As that plan was clearly not working, Maresca opted for a more fluid system with Neto, Nkunku, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez drifting across four attacking positions. Though that proved to be successful for the first half against Aston Villa on Saturday evening, Chelsea were still beaten 2-1 at Villa Park.
The premature exit of Trevoh Chalobah with injury may have certainly contributed to that with the Chelsea defender joining a growing list of absent stars. Thankfully for Maresca, most of his key players are expected to return in the coming weeks.
"Fortunately, we don't have any additional injuries," he admitted in a press conference last week. "Noni will probably be out until the international break. Nico out, Wes out, Benoit out, Romeo out, Marc Guiu out. "Probably after the international break we can have most of the injuries back, hopefully all of them. For us, this can be a big boost."
Lavia, Badiashile and Fofana have all missed a considerable amount of action this season and while Jackson has only been unavailable for a few weeks, he has been keeping busy. On Instagram, Jackson posted three stories on Sunday which showed him in the front row for Burberry's fall/winter 2025 show at London Fashion Week.
As he cannot feature for Chelsea, there is not much point in the Senegal international letting defeats get him down. Instead, given how he struggled for goals before picking up an injury, Jackson is far better off taking his mind completely away from football while he cannot control anything on the pitch.
With Jackson expected to miss the next three games at least, Maresca will need to find a solution. On a positive note, two of those upcoming fixtures are at Stamford Bridge against Leicester City and Southampton with those two teams occupying bottom two places in the Premier League table.
football.london Chelsea WhatsApp channel
Want to keep up to date with the breaking and important Chelsea stories whilst on the move? Well now you can!
Click this link to follow the football.london Chelsea WhatsApp channel, where you'll be kept up to date on the latest Blues news wherever you are.
Just remember to turn on the notifications once you've followed, and you won't miss a beat!
