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

Estevao Willian missed the clash at Cardiff City due to injury (Image: Harry Langer/DeFodi Images)

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

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.

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."