Opponent Watch: Borussia Dortmund suffer huge injury blow for return leg vs Chelsea

Karim Adeyemi could miss Borussia Dortmund’s UCL clash against Chelsea

Karim Adeyemi picked up an injury during Borussia Dortmund’s match against Hertha Berlin, and will not participate in the return leg of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 clash against Chelsea in west London.

The German club revealed on Monday (h/ Football.London), that Adeyemi tore a muscle fibre and will be out for roughly three weeks and in 15 days, Dortmund will play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge,

However, Edin Terzic still has access to a lot of outstanding players, so the loss of Adeyemi will not be felt deeply. Nevertheless, it will still be a sigh of relief for our midfielders and defenders.

Dortmund's German forward Karim Adeyemi.
Dortmund’s German forward Karim Adeyemi. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)

In Dortmund’s round of 16 first-leg matchup with the Blues on Wednesday, the 21-year-old scored the game’s lone goal, handing Graham Potter his first Champions League loss.

Chelsea failed to recover from that defeat and fell to bottom-place Southampton in the Premier League owing to a free kick by James Ward-Prowse. And given how the first leg was played, Chelsea played rather well, but their problem thus far has been a lack of flair in front of the goal.

Now with Adeyemi out of the game, the Blues may take advantage of their weakness because the Bundesliga team was heavily dependent on him in attack with his pace, as was seen when he outpaced Enzo Fernandez in a one-on-one before scoring.

Karim Adeyemi in action for RB Salzburg.
Karim Adeyemi will miss the Champions League game against Chelsea due to injury.

They still have a lot of excellent players, so we shouldn’t take a breather just yet. The likes of Sebastian Haller, Donyell Malen, Youssoufa Moukoko, Anthony Modeste, and Marco Reus are more than capable of hurting teams.

The former Swansea City manager is under a tonne of pressure as he prepares Chelsea to travel to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday at noon to face Spurs.

And things will only become worse if they don’t get a positive result, at which point Todd Boehly will have to decide what to do about Potter’s future at Chelsea.

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Hopefully, Adeyemi’s potential loss will be a telling blow for the Black and Yellow. We need to overturn the deficit in west London by any means.