Maresca confirms Madueke suffers hamstring injury

Chelsea were hit by another injury blow as Madueke was forced to leave the field with a hamstring injury during the 3-0 defeat to Brighton.

Coach Enzo Maresca is already facing a shortage of strikers, with Nicolas Jacson and Marc Giouxe out due to injuries, and now Madueke is likely to join the injury list.

In Friday night's game, the 22-year-old winger suddenly covered the back of his leg without any confrontation, and was then replaced by Sancho in the 21st minute.

At the post-match press conference, Maresca confirmed that Madueke suffered a hamstring injury and would be out for a while.

He said: “Unfortunately, Madueke’s injury is a hamstring problem and he will be out for a while.”

In addition, defender Maro Gusto also suffered an injury during the game, but Maresca confirmed that he was fine.

In this game, Kaoru Mitoma opened the scoring and Jankuba Minter scored twice to help Brighton beat Chelsea. Just six days ago, in the FA Cup, Kaoru Mitoma also scored the winning goal to eliminate the Blues.

Maresca said in an interview: "Hopefully this defeat can be a turning point."

"When we play games like this it shows there is still a lot of room for improvement. Fortunately we are still in a good position."

"It's not just a psychological problem. I feel sorry for the fans. At this stage of the game, we shouldn't have behaved like this. But we need to unite as a team."

"I feel the pressure all the time, not just now. Tonight was the worst game I've played in my coaching career. But we're still in the race for the top four."