Chelsea striker Emmanuel Emegha won’t be travelling to Australia with the team for the preseason tour.

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Chelsea have just put out the list of players who make up their travelling squad heading to Australia for their preseason tour.

It’s a funny mix – none of the players who featured at the World Cup are included, although they could join up along the way. So there’s a mix of first team starters as well as very raw youngsters straight from the academy.

There’s a chance for a lot of youngsters and new signings to impress Xabi Alonso – but there’s also one notable name missing.

Chelsea striker forced to miss tour with hamstring issue

Eagle-eyed fans spotted right away that Emmanuel Emegha, the striker bought from sister club Strasbourg over the summer, isn’t there.

Reporters on the Chelsea beat have since confirmed that this is due to a hamstring injury he picked up in our behind closed doors friendly against Bromley this week.

That’s a huge blow for Emegha, who is trying to compete to show he should be Joao Pedro’s backup this season. His final campaign at Strasbourg was blighted by injuries, so this is the worst possible timing.

There is no indication of how the severe the problem is – but it must be pretty bad if he hasn’t gone with the main group. Geovany Quenda has also picked up a light injury, but he’s expected to head out to join the squad pretty soon.

Young striker Shim Mheuka has not been included because he’s expected to go out on loan shortly.

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