Chelsea handed boost as long-term injury absentee returns to training

Chelsea have been handed a massive boost with Nicolas Jackson returning to training. The Blues have been without the striker since the start of February after he picked up a hamstring injury in the win over West Ham United.

Chelsea posted photos of their training session on Wednesday and Jackson was spotted with his teammates.

The striker was ruled out for six to eight weeks, and Enzo Maresca said that he would be back after the international break. The manager said:

"Nico [Jackson] will be out until the international break, probably available after the international break. We knew it was a muscular problem, but not how important it was. His reaction was quite good, so we all thought it wasn't a big injury. Unfortunately, he had the scan, and it is an important one - he will be out for around six to eight weeks."

The Blues have suffered without their star forward in the last two months and lost the first three matches in which he was ruled out. The Senegal star was out in the two defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and the 2-1 loss at Aston Villa. They picked up four wins after it, but lost to Arsenal just before the international break.

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Chelsea urged to replace Nicolas Jackson by John Obi Mikel

John Obi Mikel claimed on his podcast earlier this year that Nicolas Jackson was not the striker to lead Chelsea's attack. He said that the Blues were creating chances, but the Senegal star was unable to convert.

He said on The Obi One Podcast via GOAL:

"We’ve talked about getting another top, top striker who can win us these kind of games, difficult games where if Nicolas Jackson is not firing on all cylinders you can give him a rest and then get someone else to come into the team and try to win us games and score goals. We are not clinical enough, he is not scoring enough goals. He puts himself in the right positions but then he’s not finishing, he’s not scoring enough."

"He’s not a striker who’s going to get us to the top four or win us the Premier League title. He’s not that striker. I don’t think he can get us over the line in terms of winning trophies. For me, he’s a player who can link up play, he’s good on the ball but he’s not scoring enough goals."

Nicolas Jackson has scored nine goals and assisted five times in his 23 matches for Chelsea in the Premier League this season. He has not featured for them in the UEFA Europa Conference League since the qualification stage, nor has he played in the FA Cup or Carabao Cup this season.