Chelsea 'don't want heroes' insists Mauricio Pochettino amid Enzo Fernandez injury battle

Reports suggest the Blues’ £106million midfielder has been playing through a hernia issue this term
Nizaar Kinsella19 April 2024

Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea "don't need heroes" as he addressed reports that Enzo Fernandez is playing through a painful hernia problem. 

The 22-year-old midfielder is enduring an indifferent season amid rumours that he may need surgery to fix his condition in the summer.

However, he has been deemed available to play against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley on Saturday.

When asked whether Fernandez is playing through injury, Pochettino said: "Enzo has been training really well in the past few days. 

“He is going to be part of the team tomorrow and will be involved. We are managing the situation by conversing with the medical staff.

“Of course, yes, it is true that he suffered some problems in the past but he is dealing really well with the situation. We always assess him day by day.

“We need to protect him because he is a young guy, and the present is important, but so is the future.”

AFP via Getty Images

Pochettino was then asked whether the £106.8million signing from Benfica might need surgery in the summer.

“We are going to do what is the best for him,” he continued. “Again, we have experience of managing this situation. First, the most important thing is him as a person, not a player. 

“It’s about how he feels and whether he is comfortable with the situation. We will all support his decision (if he feels he needs surgery), but we are not going to force him to do something. 

“We are here to help and advise him of our assessment and experience.”

Pochettino added: “That is a tricky situation because the most important thing is he needs to be ready to perform at his best. 

“We don’t want heroes, no. We want players who can perform their best to help the team achieve what we want.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in