Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri hopes the injury that forced Eden Hazard off in the second half of the Blues’ Europa League win over Slavia Prague on Thursday is not a serious one, with the Belgian likely to be ready for Monday night’s game against Burnley.
Hazard came in for rough treatment from the Czech side during a topsy-turvy 4-3 win for Chelsea, in which they were 4-1 up at half-time but suffered a scare in the second half after a quick double strike from the visitors.
The playmaker took several hits to his ankle and went down in the first half, but carried on until the 65th minute after what seemed like a routine win suddenly looked in doubt as Prague came to within two goals of levelling the aggregate scores – Chelsea had carried a 1-0 lead from last week’s away leg – and pulling off a shock knockout of Sarri’s favoured side.
With a trip to Manchester United, direct rivals in the race for the Premier League‘s top four, to come after the Burnley fixture, any lengthy absence for Hazard could be fatal to Chelsea’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League – though the route of qualifying by winning the Europa League is still open.
However, Sarri believes there’s no need to fear a long layoff for his star player.
“Nothing serious, I hope,” Sarri said in his post-match press conference, as reported by Goal.
“It’s only a strong knock. But I think we can recover him for the next match.”
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