Chelsea have been dealt an enormous injury blow with Nicolas Jackson sidelined with a hamstring injury until April.
The Senegal international suffered the injury throughout the victory over West Ham United at first of the month, initially playing on before being subbed off within the second-half.
Jackson was not involved in last Friday’s FA Cup defeat to Brighton, undergoing further assessment this week.
Scans have now revealed the extent of the damage with the striker expected to be unavailable until after the international break at the tip of March.
It immediately rules him out of Friday night’s Premier League game against Brighton. He can even miss Premier League matches against Aston Villa, Southampton, Leicester City and Arsenal.
The Blues will hope to have Jackson available again for the visit of Tottenham on 2 April.
His absence serves as a significant blow to Enzo Maresca’s plans with the top coach now left and not using a traditional centre forward.
Marc Guiu was also forced off in the identical game against West Ham and stays unavailable for the foreseeable future.
Christopher Nkunku, prolific within the Europa Conference League, has waited patiently for his probability and will now be tasked with replacing Jackson.
Chelsea did consider bringing in one other no9 throughout the January transfer window and were regarded as amongst the edges desirous about signing Mathys Tel who eventually ended up at Tottenham.
The Blues didn’t add to their attack nonetheless with Joao Felix’s loan move to AC Milan further depleting their numbers.
Chelsea enjoyed an exquisite begin to the season under Maresca but have slowed down in recent weeks, winning two of their last eight Premier League games to fall 16 points behind leaders Liverpool.
Jackson has scored nine goals this season and laid on five assists – all coming within the Premier League.
While he was on a run of eight games and not using a goal before injury struck, the previous Villarreal star has been the focus of Maresca’s attack, starting every league game bar the trip to Southampton in December.
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