Former Chelsea doctor Chris Hughes re-hired by the club to solve injury crisis
As per Evening Standard, Chelsea have re-hired former doctor Chris Hughes to solve the injury crisis the team suffered last season that hampered their performance.
The Blues suffered 48 injuries last season, which was the highest among the Premier League clubs. While that was not the sole reason behind their lower-half finish in the table, it certainly played a massive part.
Almost half of the medical staff of the Roman Abramovich era was gone in the middle of the last campaign. Even medical director Paco Biosca was given the relieving orders.
That must have affected the players while they were recovering from injuries or trying to get over knock after a gruelling game of football. Was it a coincidence that Reece James and Wesley Fofana suffered injuries after coming back from a long-term absence and struggled for rhythm? One would not think so.
Hughes, who worked at Chelsea between 2012 and 2017 before joining Tottenham Hotspur to work with Mauricio Pochettino, is back at the club now.
He is appointed as the head of the academy medical and as a first-team doctor. He also rejoins hands with Pochettino now that the latter is the new Blues boss this summer onwards.
What the former Spurs boss would be eyeing is the consistent availability of the key players in the squad for the majority of seasons. When that happens, he can create a set of 13-14 players that are banked to take part in most games and win them.
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It won’t be that tough an ask for Hughes to come back and fix the issues, having worked here before. But, the environment might be different with new owners and a varying approach from the previous regime.