Enzo Maresca has confirmed Nicolas Jackson will miss Chelsea’s trip to West Ham on Friday as he explores a move away from the club.
Sources have told ESPN that Aston Villa and Newcastle United are among the teams interested in signing the 24-year-old, who Chelsea are willing to part with this summer after signing João Pedro from Brighton and Liam Delap from Ipswich Town for a combined total of £90 million ($121m).
Jackson is valued at around £60m and sources said Villa are at an early stage in exploring whether a deal could be possible amid concerns over the club’s compliance with Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules.
Asked about whether Jackson would be available against West Ham, Maresca said on Thursday: “He is available but he is not going to be part of the squad because as we already said, we have two strikers, two players in that position and also we know that something can happen before the transfer window closes.”
Pushed on whether a deal was close, Maresca continued: “No idea to be honest, no idea. You know already from last season that I prefer to be focused on the training sessions, preparing the game and these kind of things, I don’t know.”
Maresca stated that Christopher Nkunku was in a similar situation amid interest from Bayern Munich but both players are training with the first-team squad. However, Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling are working alone as they seek moves to revive their careers.
Chilwell spent the second half of last season on loan at Crystal Palace while Sterling endured a difficult temporary switch to Arsenal.
Maresca also played down any concerns over Wesley Fofana’s future at Stamford Bridge after he deleted all traces of Chelsea from his Instagram account.
Fofana returned to the squad against Palace last weekend for the first time since undergoing hamstring surgery in April and Maresca said: “I spoke with Wes every day. He is very, very happy firstly because he is back from the injury.
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“He is joining in all the sessions with us. He is very happy and as I said after the Palace game, he was on the bench just to be with us but from tomorrow he is with us and he can also get some minutes.
“He is happy and we are happy. As for Instagram, as you know unfortunately I don’t have any idea because I don’t use [any] social network.”
Fofana suffered backlash from some supporters mindful that he culled his social media in similar fashion when attempting to push through his move from Leicester City to Chelsea in 2022.
“Wes is happy, we are happy and there is nothing to add on that,” Maresca said. “Now, I think if there is abuse on Instagram, it is never good. It is not good for Wes, not good for any player and not good for any human being in the world. But it is something unfortunately that we cannot control.”
Romeo Lavia and Benoît Badiashile are still sidelined by injury.
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