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Chelsea’s new head coach Mauricio Pochettino

Armando Broja is targeting pre-season to return from the serious knee injury he suffered back in December, football.london understands.

The 21-year-old picked up the injury in Chelsea’s mid-season friendly against Aston Villa in Abu Dhabi back in December. Broja required surgery after scans confirmed an anterior cruciate ligament rupture.

The Albanian striker, who recorded 18 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea prior to the injury, did not play again for the remainder of the 2022/23 season. However, Broja is now targeting pre-season this summer to make his comeback from the serious injury.

Broja returned to the grass to take part in some light individual sessions back in April, which was perhaps the biggest milestone he has hit thus far in his recovery programme. Speaking about the difficulties of the seven-month period he has been sidelined to Chelsea’s website back in April, Broja admitted the psychological struggles such an injury brings.

“I still haven’t got my head fully around it,” the Albanian said. “It does play on your mind. It was a big shock because I have always been quite a healthy lad, and have had just had a few minor injuries here and there. It was an even bigger shock to my mum and dad, because they have so rarely seen me injured.

“After surgery, I was bedridden for about two weeks. It was one of the worst times of my life. It was horrible. I couldn’t get out of bed. My mum was running round the house to get me tablets and give me my food. It was a struggle. You almost feel useless. You want to be able to do stuff, but you just can’t.

“I couldn’t sleep. I was in pain. The day and what happened played on my mind constantly. I was thinking about ways I could have avoided it, even though that wasn’t a good thing to do.

“I had to take a step back from that. It was something I had to move past, start just focusing on getting back fit. As they say, the comeback is going to be better than the setback.”

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