Chelsea youngster Tyrique George is “ready to play”, though he is not “100 per cent ready”, Enzo Maresca has said.
George has been fully integrated into the first-team picture at Chelsea this season, with a clip showing him being given his own locker in the main dressing room at Cobham going viral late last year.
The majority of the teenager’s senior minutes have come in the Conference League, though he did start the FA Cup third round win over Morecambe and was brought on to chase the game as the Blues were beaten by Brighton in round four.
At one stage in the campaign, George’s path to regular game time in the Premier League looked fairly tough given the depth of wide options in front of him.
However, with Mykhailo Mudryk provisionally suspended from football after testing positive for a banned substance earlier this season following an “adverse finding in a routine urine test”, Noni Madueke sidelined through injury and Jadon Sancho struggling for form, the door has been opened for the 19-year-old.
Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League clash away at Aston Villa, Maresca has dropped a hint as to whether George could start at Villa Park.
“For sure, he’s a young one. He’s not probably ready 100 per cent. But because of the amount of injuries we have, we need to use the ones we have.
“Ty is a young profile, he’s doing well.
“Hopefully we can give him more chances and he can help us.”
It would appear that Maresca isn’t yet ready to hand George a full Premier League debut, though it seems the young winger can look forward to increased game time in the coming weeks.
The Chelsea boss has shown in recent games against Brighton that he is ready to turn to the teenager in search of a result and that could be a warning to keep Sancho and Pedro Neto, in particular, on their toes.
