Chelsea returned to action on Sunday after the winter break, beating Championship rivals Charlton Athletic 4-0 in the fourth round of the FA Women’s Cup.
Mayra Ramirez, Guro Reiten, Aggie Beever-Jones and Niamh Charles got on the scoresheet, but Sonia Bompastor was still without several key players.
Kadeisha Buchanan and Sophie Ingle have been sidelined for long periods with ACL injuries, while Lauren James and the aforementioned Charles have only recently returned from injuries.
Mia Fishel and Sam Kerr suffered ACL injuries in early 2024 and fans are eagerly awaiting their return as their recovery timelines are close to a year away. Kerr in particular was one of them Chelseathe most important figures from her WSL arrival from Chicago Red Stars as early as 2020.
Last January, Kerr was injured while training in Morocco with the club in warm weather and has been sidelined ever since. Neither Kerr nor Fishel have yet returned to full team practice and are still far from returning to the field.
The pair traveled to Portugal with the squad for this year’s warm-weather training camp, but completed their own program separately from the group. Bompastor hinted before Christmas that a return in February or March was the most likely scenario for Kerr.
“We are looking to maybe bring her back with us [in] February [or] March, not before that,” Bompastor told the media last month. “She’s still in individual rehabilitation. It will take at least another two or three months for her to be ready enough to be with the team.”
That would put her recovery timeline back more than a year, but could allow her to be involved at a key point in the season as Chelsea chase another WSL title. The team have won nine of their ten league games so far this term and have dropped points just once.
Chelsea are six points clear at the top of the table, just behind him Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United. The London club also qualified for the knockout round Champions League because they want to finally end the wait for the European title.
The WSL leaders will travel to face West Ham United at the Chigwell Construction Stadium this weekend before welcoming Championship side Durham to Kingsmeadow in the quarter-finals of the newly renamed Subway Women’s League Cup next week.
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