Enzo Maresca confirms fresh Chelsea injury blow as Estevao Willian update given

Enzo Maresca has revealed Estevao Willian missed Chelsea's win over Cardiff City after sustaining a muscle injury.

When asked why the Brazilian was not included in the matchday squad for the Carabao Cup clash on Tuesday night, Maresca told football.london: "He had a small problem, a muscle problem. He won't be available for Newcastle, and we'll see for the next one."

The 18-year-old has impressed since moving to London from Palmeiras in the summer, with the teenager scoring five goals in 21 appearances so far. Maresca has been keen to protect the winger, though, and Estevao has only been given cameos from the bench in recent matches.

The likes of Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho have been preferred to the youngster, although if fit Estevao would have likely played some part of the 3-1 win over Cardiff on Tuesday. He now faces a spell on the sidelines, however, and will not return until after Chelsea's Premier League clash at Newcastle on Saturday. football.london understands Estevao is expected to be fit in time for the clash against Aston Villa on Saturday, December 27.

Garnacho scored twice and Neto netted once to send the Blues into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup. David Turnbull had equalised after 75 minutes – his first goal for 13 months – to give renewed hope to the last EFL team in the competition but Maresca's subs in the second half proved too much for the League One outfit.

"I just said that these are the kind of games that I fall in love even more with the players, because it's very, very easy," Maresca told the media post-match.

"You cannot imagine how easy it is to slip, to slide, because they are tricky games. Every season, there are teams that they lost against League Two or League One teams. You need to pay attention, you need to do the right things.

"Cardiff is very well organised, off the ball they were very intense, and we expect exactly the game that we face, knowing that Ty [George] is not playing a lot, [Marc] Guiu is not playing a lot, Facu [Buonanotte] is not playing a lot. So we expect some difficulty in the first half, and then in the second half, with the change, we were quite better."