Chelsea star’s injury return plan revealed with World Cup spot still possible | Football

All things considered, Chelsea have had better weeks.

Losing captain Reece James to injury, Champions League humiliation, Enzo Fernandez’s transfer bombshell and a suspended transfer ban were just the headlines. There was also Pedro Neto pushing a ballboy, a huge injury scare for Trevoh Chalobah and losing ground in the race for a top five finish after defeat to Newcastle United.

Good news has been hard to come by. But the sight of Levi Colwill back in training will have been a much-welcome lift.

Colwill has not played a minute of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee the week before the campaign started in August, undergoing surgery in what was the biggest setback of his career to date. Suffice to say, his presence has been sorely missed.

Chelsea resisted interest from Manchester City and Liverpool after Colwill’s excellent loan spell at Brighton and emerged as one of the club’s truly untouchable figures last season. The 23-year-old started 35 of Chelsea’s 38 Premier League matches, finishing the 90 in each of them and scored the goal that secured their return to the Champions League on the final day of the season against Nottingham Forest.

While Trevoh Chalobah has had a fine season, they have missed a natural left-footer at the back. Wesley Fofana’s form has wavered while Tosin Adarabioyo cannot be considered a long-term solution.

Colwill was back in what Liam Rosenior described as ‘partial training’ ahead of the first leg against PSG last week.

Chelsea have not provided a clear timeline for when their defender will play again but there is an growing expectation he could play before the end of the season.

‘I’m hopeful,’ Rosenior said last month. ‘I’m hopeful because he’s an outstanding player. Again, no time frames.

‘You have to take these long-term injuries day by day. And also, it’s not about when he comes back, it’s about him staying fit when he is back.’

Behind the scenes, the hard work has been underway for months. Explaining the process the club’s medical staff and Colwill have undertaken, Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare, explained the most important goal will be getting the player’s training levels back to where they were pre-injury before he is exposed to first-team football.

‘There will be an enormous, very gradual build up to his return to play,’ Smith said. ‘The plan in place for a return from an injury like this is extremely detailed. With an ACL, what you don’t want is an anterior translation where the top part of the leg slides forward on the bottom half of the leg because that is what essentially severs the ACL.

‘So you need your hamstring muscles to be incredibly strong. They will have done lots of work on jumping and landing because when you get into that landing position, that is where that translation or sliding occurs.

‘They will be doing lots of strengthening work on how you land from a jump, they will also be doing a lot of changes in direction and how you decelerate.

‘Obviously they will want him up to speed but how you slow down will be monitored. All his movement patterns will graduate from very low velocity to very fast speeds, moving from very controlled situations to very uncontrolled, chaotic situations.

‘This is a process that will have been building for months. They will be looking closely at his numbers from a normal game week, looking hit those pre-injury baseline levels and replicating the type of demands placed upon a player in training and games, hopefully without any adverse reaction.’

Chelsea still have trophy hopes this season in the form of the FA Cup while they are in the thick of a battle for a top five finish with Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool.

Rosenior will be hopeful his defender can have a role to play in the run-in but for Colwill, he will also have one eye firmly on the World Cup.

There is intense competition at centre-half and the Chelsea star will not have the opportunity to impress Thomas Tuchel in the upcoming international break.

But Smith believes there is ample opportunity for Colwill to end his injury hell with a trip State-side.

‘There is plenty of time and importantly, he won’t be going into the summer with the same level of fatigue compared to other players who gave played all season. So there are some pros and cons to where he is at right now.’

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