Chelsea defender admits he could leave Stamford Bridge

Kurt Zouma has revealed he could be forced to leave Chelsea in search of regular football after failing to break through under Antonio Conte since returning from injury.

The 22-year-old suffered a serious knee injury a year ago that left him sidelined for 10 months and Zouma has been forced to watch most of Chelsea’s title challenge from the substitute bench since returning to first-team action around Christmas.

Antonio Conte has instead stuck with a back three of David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta that has limited Zouma to just two minutes of Premier League action in two months.

The France international would not be short of suitors after establishing himself as one of the best young defenders in the Premier League before injury wiped him out for almost a year and the Chelsea No.5 has revealed he could be forced to re-evaluate his future soon.

“Logically, I will wait until the end of the season,” he told L’Equipe, via The Daily Mirror. “We will see then. At least I am playing in the cup. We will have to see how the second part of the season goes. But the most important thing is the team – first of all, to be champions.

“After that, we will have to talk because I am young and at my age, I have to play more. For now, I will wait. I am happy that the team is winning even if, at some time, I am going to have to play if I want to achieve my objective of returning to the France team.

“They will be talks, but once again, I am not worried about that. For now, it is all about the team.”

Zouma’s current deal isn’t due to expire until 2019 so Chelsea would be able to command a sizeable fee for the centre-back if they are forced to cash in on him in the summer.

Since making his debut in the 2014/15 campaign Chelsea interestingly actually have a far better win ratio in the league without Zouma in the starting XI (63.9%) compared to when he has started (39.3%).

For more stats on Kurt Zouma, click here to visit his WhoScored player page