Chelsea fear ‘world class talent’ has aggravated injury and now has been ruled out of Aston Villa game

Chelsea defender Benoit Badiashile has suffered a fresh setback and removed himself from team training ahead of the club’s Premier League game against Aston Villa next this weekend.

The defender hasn't kicked a ball this season following a hamstring problem he had from the end of last campaign and even though he was expected to be back in pre-season an initial setback meant he stayed behind at the club’s Surrey’s training base.

The French defender joined Chelsea from AS Monaco last January and even though the club’s form did not massively improve, he had shown enough to be seen as a very talented football.

There were growing reports that he was close to returning to the first team but this latest will come as a blow to the team as they prepare for their game against Aston Villa this weekend.

Badiashile is one of 12 Chelsea players currently unavailable to Mauricio Pochettino because of injury – with the Blues having picked up just five points from as many games at the start of the Premier League season.

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino admitted the injuries were taking a toll on his team as they battle to return to the very top of English and European football.

He said: “With the circumstances, I think it’s better for us (to not be playing European football) because we have 11 or 12 injured players. Pochettino told reporters ahead of Sunday’s trip to Bournemouth. I think it’s important now that we can recover and be more competitive.”

Chelsea have won just one of their first five league games of the season and will hope for their seond win aaginst Unai Enery’s side.