Mauricio Pochettino insists Chelsea’s medical department are not to blame for the rash of injuries that have derailed the start of his reign.

Chelsea’s injury crisis left Pochettino with only 15 fit senior players for last weekend’s disappointing draw at Bournemouth in the Premier League. Although Chelsea have spent over £1 billion on signings since Toddy Boehly’s consortium took over in 2021, the squad is stretched to breaking point.

The Blues had 12 stars absent against Bournemouth, forcing Pochettino to include three players aged 19 or under who had no first-team experience on his bench, as well as two goalkeepers. Christopher Nkunku, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Wesley Fofana, Carney Chukwuemeka, Trevoh Chalobah and Moises Caicedo are among the players filling the treatment room.

Chelsea are languishing in 14th with one win from five games ahead of Sunday’s clash with Aston Villa, but Pochettino doesn’t believe the medical staff are at fault. “Before we arrived here we did everything to try and have a clear idea of why there were too many injuries last season also, to analyse the risk. It’s about the profile of the player, the risk of the player. It’s not the people working in the medical staff of performance area,” Pochettino told reporters on Friday.

“I think we need to respect these areas at the club are very good professionals, qualified people. That’s why they are working in football. But there’s an individual risk to certain players, you need to assess. Then there’s bad luck. We have injures that maybe happen in one season or maybe in two, but have happened to Chelsea because of different situations you cannot control,” added Chelsea’s manager.