Enzo Fernandez’s season has ended prematurely. The most expensive player in Premier League history underwent groin surgery – apparently after a long period of suffering
The central midfield alone cost Chelsea FC well over 200 million euros. But even Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo could not prevent the Blues from following up a miserable 2022/23 season with a barely better 2023/24 season. For Fernandez, this is now already over – which fits in with the gloomy picture his club has been painting for a long time.
The reigning world champion underwent an operation on his groin six match days before the end of the season, which obviously could no longer be postponed. “I needed this operation because I’ve been carrying the pain around with me for around six months,” Fernandez wrote in an Instagram post on Friday. The procedure was “successful”
For a long time, he had suppressed the pain “constantly with injections and medication”, but “a few weeks ago” it became more and more severe, the 23-year-old said. “It got worse and worse in training and in games.” And now he is at the point of saying: “I can’t take it anymore. “
Pochettino defends intervention shortly before the end of the season
At his press conference on Friday, his coach also defended the decision to take Fernandez out of action before the end of a season in which Chelsea have little chance of qualifying for the European Cup: “He is in pain and feels restricted by it,” explained Mauricio Pochettino. “The most important thing is that we fix the problem for him. If he doesn’t feel well, if he can’t perform because of the situation, it’s not good for him, the team or the club.”
Whether it was due to physical problems or not: Fernandez, the most expensive Premier League player since his transfer in January 2023 with a base transfer fee of €121 million, but only €5 million heavier than his teammate Caicedo, failed to impress in his first full season. He now ends it with 28 league appearances and three goals, missing another through a penalty miss.
