Chelsea face an anxious wait over Maxence Lacroix after the centre-back limped off at Anfield with a suspected hamstring injury, on a night when a Carabao Cup exit on penalties was not even the worst news for Xabi Alonso.
Lacroix pulled up shortly after Cody Gakpo had levelled for Liverpool from the penalty spot, clutching the back of his left thigh before being replaced by Levi Colwill in first-half stoppage time. Chelsea went on to lose the shootout 6-5, as the full report of Liverpool beating Chelsea shows, but the sight of their most-used defender heading straight for the dressing room is what will worry Alonso most.
Too early to tell, Alonso admits
Alonso was honest after the final whistle: it is simply too soon to know how bad this is. "Too early to tell. Probably he felt something on the hamstrings. And we need a couple of days to check what's going to be the injury," the Chelsea manager said, in quotes carried by LiveScore.
That assessment was echoed in the injury round-up from RotoWire, which noted Lacroix pulled up without contact, was visibly uncomfortable holding his hamstring, and will undergo further examinations over the next couple of days. No timescale has been put on a return, and Chelsea will not rush a verdict before the scans are complete.
The detail matters because Lacroix has become a fixture. The 26-year-old Frenchman, a £52million summer signing from Crystal Palace, has started seven of Chelsea's eight Premier League games this season — all but one, in the differing counts published this morning — and no Chelsea defender has played more league minutes. He had already made one recovery run to deny Gakpo an early chance at Anfield before the second chase ended with him on the turf.
A defence already stretched
Lacroix was not the only concern on the night. Moises Caicedo and Malo Gusto were both withdrawn on 68 minutes, with Alonso confirming Caicedo had felt a minor problem and Gusto had cramp. Add in the players Chelsea were already missing — captain Reece James, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and Jamie Gittens among them, and striker Joao Pedro ruled out for a few weeks with a thigh injury — and the treatment room is filling up at exactly the wrong moment.
If Lacroix is ruled out, Alonso's options are Colwill, who already has a half at Anfield behind him, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato and Josh Acheampong. Fofana, who handled a corner to concede the penalty Gakpo converted and then missed the decisive kick in the shootout, will need to put a painful night behind him quickly if he is asked to step in.
Chelsea have conceded 15 league goals this season, a record that already raised questions about a back line asked to press man-to-man. Losing the one defender Alonso has trusted most does not make that argument any easier to win.
So what happens next?
Manchester United arrive at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, and the recovery window is brutally short. A couple of days for checks, as Alonso put it, takes Chelsea almost to the eve of the game. Even a minor hamstring problem rarely clears in that time, so Alonso is likely to be planning without Lacroix while publicly keeping the door open.
For United, still under pressure after their own heavy defeats, this is a glimmer of encouragement — a Chelsea defence reshuffled again, against a side desperate for a result. For Chelsea, fifth in the table and now out of one cup, the priority flips entirely to the league, which is precisely what Alonso said when he called the Carabao Cup the club's least important competition after the Anfield defeat.
Beyond the Final Whistle: A shootout defeat in October is forgotten by Christmas. Losing your ever-present centre-back for the winter run is not. Chelsea's season will not be defined by going out at Anfield, but it could be shaped by what those scans show in the next 48 hours — because Alonso has built his defence around Lacroix, and there is no like-for-like replacement waiting. If this is weeks rather than days, Saturday against United is only the first problem.
Will Chelsea cope without Lacroix against Manchester United on Saturday, or is this the injury that finally breaks Alonso's back line? Let us know in the comments.
