Transfer Centre

Christopher Nkunku 'will still join Chelsea despite knee injury'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 24 November 2022

Chelsea will still reportedly complete their deal to sign Christopher Nkunku next summer, despite the RB Leipzig forward suffering a serious knee injury.

Chelsea will reportedly still complete their deal to sign Christopher Nkunku next summer, despite the RB Leipzig forward suffering a knee injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.

The 25-year-old was initially called up to France's squad for the tournament in Qatar, but tore knee ligaments during the squad's final training session before flying out to the World Cup.

Nkunku is expected to miss around eight weeks with the injury, ensuring that he could play no part in France's defence of their World Cup crown, while he will also miss the resumption of the domestic season with Leipzig.

However, French outlet Le10 Sport reports that the injury will have no bearing on the winger's expected move to Chelsea next year, with the player having already completed his medical ahead of the switch.

Confirmation of the deal has not been officially announced, but it is understood that the two parties have agreed personal terms and that Chelsea are willing to pay his £53m release clause.

RB Leipzig's Christopher Nkunku celebrates scoring their second goal on April 14, 2022 © Reuters

There had previously been speculation that The Blues could look to move the transfer forward to January, but any deal is not expected to go through until July 1 at the earliest.

Nkunku has scored 12 goals in 15 Bundesliga appearances this season, helping Leipzig up to third place before the international break.

The France international's form this term is a continuation of last season, when he scored 35 goals and created 20 more in 52 appearances across all competitions.

Chelsea, by contrast, have struggled this season, losing four of their five games immediately prior to the break, including each of their last three without scoring a goal.

Graham Potter's side will resume their domestic campaign against Bournemouth on December 27, and will spend Christmas sitting eighth in the Premier League table.

France, meanwhile, won their World Cup opener 4-1 against Australia on Tuesday, but were hit with another injury blow as Lucas Hernandez joined Nkunku, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante and Paul Pogba as big-name injury absentees for the world champions.