Chelsea may have undermined their own attempts to sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi by recalling Trevoh Chalobah from his loan at Selhurst Park.
The Blues need more defenders after losing Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile to injury, with Chalobah's recall indicative of just how desperate their situation is.
Guehi is a name Chelsea have been linked with after initially selling him to Palace for around £18 million and becoming their top defensive target in January.
Talks have reportedly already begun between the two camps, and with Guehi's contract having just 18 months left to run, Palace could soon be considering a move.
But Chelsea could have trouble signing Guehi this window after causing complications in the deal by bringing back Chalobah.
According to the Daily Mail, Palace have no plans to sign another centre-back this month and therefore losing both Guehi and Chalobah would not be in their interests.
The report claims the player is now likely to remain at Selhurst Park, with Palace happy with their current centre-backs of Guehi, Maxence Lacroix, Chadi Riad and Chris Richards.
It goes on to say that Chelsea remain interested in Guehi and that a move is still theoretically possible, but it would take an “unexpected turn of events” for him to re-sign for his boyhood club.
In recent matches, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has played Josh Acheampong as a makeshift centre-back this season and the Italian refused to rule out the chance of defensive reinforcements this month.
Earlier this month, after Acheampong impressed against Palace in a 1-1 draw, he said: “Even if we don't decide to buy or sell players because Josh has shown he is good, we already knew Josh was good enough .Probably with Wes and Benoit's injuries, we'll see if anything happens [in the transfer market].”
Acheampong played his second game in a row in the 2-2 draw against Bournemouth. He stood next to Levi Colwill and kept Axel Disasi on the bench.
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