Despite writing that Alvaro Morata was likely to be sidelined for a couple of weeks yesterday, as the day developed, the seriousness of the injury became more apparent, and the prognosis is now worse than expected. Various timescales exist in the plethora of media outlets on-line as to how long Morata is going to be out.
Morata limped off the pitch during Chelsea`s home defeat against Manchester City on Saturday. Antonio Conte believed, that Morata had sensed a problem and stopped playing before too much damage was done.
Morata went out to Madrid, in line with international call up protocol, to join the Spanish squad ahead of this week`s World Cup qualifiers. The medical team with the Spanish Football Federation assessed Morata and had his hamstring injury scanned, the results of which revealed a grade 2 tear. That’s generally 4-8 weeks out.
We know the best story, for the media, is that Morata will be out for a long period. That gives plenty of opportunity during the international break to create unrest at Chelsea FC and highlight the problems within the club.
Whether it’s four weeks, or eight weeks, we will be bombarded with tales reflecting Antonio Conte`s unhappiness at the fact his bosses didn’t buy another striker in the transfer window.
At least the break gives Conte time to assess his squad and come up with a cunning plan to defeat the upcoming opposition. Chelsea have an excellent medical team at Cobham and for sure they’ll have Morata back playing as soon as possible.
In the meantime Conte may have find a role for Michy Batshuayi that suits his style of play and sees him link up with fellow Belgian Eden Hazard in attack.
UPDATE This evening there`s added confusion as to the extent of Alvaro Morata`s injury. Morata took to Twitter to say he was working towards a return against Crystal Palace. It was quickly deleted but not before it was screen grabbed by Conteholic amongst others,
Morata deleted this tweet 🤔 pic.twitter.com/O2zPCdXSnh
? Conteholic (@Conteholic) October 3, 2017
As ever with these tweets, they have to be taken with a pinch of salt given the skill of those accomplished on Photoshop. However, The Guardian report the story in a similar way. The article says Morata will assessed by Chelsea`s medical team and have the injury re-scanned now he`s back at Cobham. Hopefully the prognosis will be better.