Chelsea have been dealt a huge injury blow with Nicolas Jackson sidelined with a hamstring injury until April.
The Senegal international suffered the injury during the victory over West Ham United at the start of the month, initially playing on before being subbed off in the second-half.
Jackson was not involved in last Friday’s FA Cup defeat to Brighton, undergoing further assessment this week.
Scans have now revealed the extent of the damage with the striker expected to be unavailable until after the international break at the end of March.
It immediately rules him out of Friday night’s Premier League game against Brighton. He will also miss Premier League matches against Aston Villa, Southampton, Leicester City and Arsenal.
The Blues will hope to have Jackson available again for the visit of Tottenham on 2 April.
His absence serves as a major blow to Enzo Maresca’s plans with the head coach now left without a traditional centre forward.
Marc Guiu was also forced off in the same game against West Ham and remains unavailable for the foreseeable future.
Christopher Nkunku, prolific in the Europa Conference League, has waited patiently for his chance and could now be tasked with replacing Jackson.
Chelsea did consider bringing in another no9 during the January transfer window and were thought to be among the sides interested in signing Mathys Tel who eventually ended up at Tottenham.
The Blues failed to add to their attack however with Joao Felix’s loan move to AC Milan further depleting their numbers.
Chelsea enjoyed a wonderful start to the season under Maresca but have slowed down in recent weeks, winning two of their last eight Premier League games to fall 16 points behind leaders Liverpool.
Jackson has scored nine goals this season and laid on five assists – all coming in the Premier League.
While he was on a run of eight games without a goal before injury struck, the former Villarreal star has been the focal point of Maresca’s attack, starting every league game bar the trip to Southampton in December.
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