Chelsea are open to sending Ben Chilwell on loan to Turkey, with the left-back facing at least four months in the football wilderness if he stays at Stamford Bridge.
Chilwell did not secure a move away from Chelsea before the English transfer window closed and the Saudi Arabia window is now also shut.
That leaves Turkey as Chilwell’s only hope of securing a move to play football between now and January, with Chelsea willing to let him out on loan.
Chelsea would ideally like to sell Chilwell, who earns around £200,000 a week, but there is virtually no chance of a permanent deal being agreed with a club at this stage.
The Turkish transfer window is open until Sept 18, but Chelsea are yet to receive any offers for Chilwell, who was the club’s vice-captain last season.
Chilwell has been told he will not play for latest head coach Enzo Maresca and has been training away from the first team.
While other senior players who were relegated to the so-called “bomb squad”, such as Raheem Sterling and Trevoh Chalobah, have moved away from Chelsea, Chilwell is yet to secure a move.
And Maresca has made it clear that there is no prospect of him being reintegrated back into the first-team squad if he does not move away from Chelsea.
That means Chilwell will continue to train away from the first team and will not play any senior football for four months before the January transfer window if he does not go to Turkey.
Maresca has claimed that Chilwell is not suited to his style of play, in which full-backs push into midfield or play as a third centre-back.
Marc Cucurella has started for Chelsea under Maresca on the left, with summer signing Renato Veiga placed on the substitutes’ bench as his understudy.
Chelsea hope that right-back Malo Gusto will not be out for long with the hamstring injury he suffered against Crystal Palace. But the Frenchman could miss the first game back after the international break against Bournemouth, while Reece James is unlikely to be fit enough to start that game.
James has been out injured for the opening three games that he would have missed through suspension, and is still thought to be a couple of weeks away from returning to full training.
Should Gusto and James both be ruled out, then Maresca may have to consider starting Moises Caicedo as a makeshift inverted right-back, with midfielder Romeo Lavía due to start training again with a view to being fit for the Bournemouth game.
