Fofana joined the Blues from Leicester in the summer of 2022 but has seen his progress hindered due to various knee and ligament injuries.
The 23-year-old has played just 25 times for Chelsea across all competitions so far and didn’t take to the field at all last season due to a cruciate ligament tear.
But Fofana has already played five times in the Premier League at the start of this season, even earning a recall to the French national team — though he did leave camp early last month as a precaution.
With that in mind, the sight of Fofana coming off in the 57th minute against the Hammers on Saturday, followed by the player hobbling around and having heavy strapping and ice on his knee, will be a real cause for concern.
However, Maresca has moved to calm fears regarding Fofana’s fitness, insisting the defender was only brought off as ‘protection’.
“No, no, no [it’s not serious],” Maresca told reporters of Fofana, who played as a right-back on Saturday (via Football.London).
“The reason why we changed him is because we try to protect him a little bit. In the second-half, they changed Kudus to this side and it was probably a big risk to keep him but there is not any injury.
“Wes is a player I really love and we love with Wes because he is doing fantastic after one year of injury. For any player that is out for a year, it is not easy and he is doing top. This is the only thing we want from him.”
Fofana will likely be rested as Chelsea host League Two leaders Barrow in the EFL Cup on Tuesday before returning to the squad for their Premier League clash at home to Brighton next weekend.
