Chelsea's Christopher Nkunku out until December due to knee surgery

Christopher Nkunku was injured in Chelsea's friendly against Borussia Dortmund. A blow to their preparation for the season after new player Christopher Nkunku underwent surgery for a knee injury that will keep him out until December, and Mauricio Pochettino will increase the desire to add at least one more striker to his team.

This means Nkunku will not play with Chelsea until December, giving Pochettino a major headache ahead of Sunday's Premier League game against Liverpool.

Nkunku suffered a knee injury in Chelsea's last match before the match against Liverpool. season against Borussia Dortmund in Chicago on a pitch that drew widespread criticism for its condition. He also missed last season's World Cup with a knee injury sustained in France training.

Pochettino was already aiming for Chelsea to sign at least one more attacking player this summer before it became known about the failure of Nkunku, when the club weighed several attacking options.

Crystal Palace's Michael Olize, whose younger brother, Richard is on the Chelsea books, has been on Chelsea's radar, but the Frenchman himself is expected to miss the start of the season following surgery for a torn hamstring from the European Under-21 Championship under 21.

With Nkunku and defender Wesley Fofana already out and another transfer target, Tyler Adams, recovering from injury, this could prompt Chelsea to look elsewhere. Ajax's Mohammed Kudus is another attacking midfielder considered by Chelsea, although Brighton have agreed a deal with the Dutch club in principle.

Pochettino and the club initially hoped that Nkunku could only miss the first couple of weeks of the season. new season, but further scans showed that the injury was much more serious than first feared.

Chelsea said in a statement: “Nkunku suffered a knee injury that has kept the striker out of action for an extended period.

«The 25-year-old has undergone surgery and will now start a rehabilitation program with the club's medical department.»

Nkunku's injury will only exacerbate what has already promised to be an extremely tight end to Chelsea's summer transfer window, with Pochettino still wanting up to four new players, with more than 10 still likely. leave.

In addition to Chelsea signing at least one more striker, Chelsea are set to sign two new midfielders, with Adams likely to come from Leeds United. excluded the possibility of bidding for the attacker.

Pochettino wants a first-team limit of 25 players meaning signings will be offset by another huge dropout as Chelsea still want to get rid of Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Malang Sarr , while bidding will be on Trevoch Chalobah and Conor Gallagher, and some young players will go on loan.

Chelsea are close to completing their search for a new shirt sponsor. A deal with biomechanical engineering firm Infinite is believed to be pending. Athlete, created after Tempus Ex Machina acquired Biocore.

Searching for the main Chelsea shirt sponsor seems to be resolved. Photo: Getty Images/Adam Hunger. replacing Three as the club's main title sponsor.

It's unclear if a new sponsor will be confirmed for Sunday's Premier League game against Liverpool, but Chelsea have focused on securing the best possible deal rather than using the first game of the season as the deadline for reaching an agreement.

Chief Executive Officer Chris Jurasek was tasked with finding a new sponsor and did not want to compromise the quality of the deal in order to close the deal as quickly as possible as Chelsea believe that it could set an unwelcome benchmark for future sponsorship talks.

But it looks like Jurasek is now on the brink of abandoning Chelsea's search for a replacement for Three, whose deal cost around £40m.