{"id":30709,"date":"2026-04-03T15:22:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30709"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:22:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:22:55","slug":"chelsea-drop-fernandez-for-two-games-for-comments-on-his-future","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/chelsea-drop-fernandez-for-two-games-for-comments-on-his-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea drop Fernandez for two games for comments on his future"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">Chelsea have \u200bdropped their record signing Enzo Fernandez for two matches after the midfielder publicly \u200ccast doubt over his future at Stamford Bridge, manager Liam Rosenior said on Friday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\nThe Argentine World Cup winner has been axed for Saturday&#8217;s FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale and next Sunday&#8217;s Premier League \u200bclash with Manchester City<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\nFernandez, who has been wearing the captain&#8217;s armband in the \u200babsence of injured Reece James, said he would &#8220;look at his options after \u2060the World Cup&#8221; and expressed a desire to live in Spain.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I spoke with Enzo \u200ban hour ago. As a football club, with me as part of that process, we&#8217;ve \u200bmade a decision he won&#8217;t be available for tomorrow&#8217;s game (against Port Vale) and he won&#8217;t be available for Manchester City next Sunday,&#8221; Rosenior told reporters.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The 25-year-old midfielder, who is contracted until 2032, has been linked \u200bwith a move to Real Madrid, though he denied talks with the Spanish club \u200bwere taking place.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Rosenior described Fernandez&#8217;s public comments as &#8220;disappointing&#8221; given his leadership role during Chelsea&#8217;s current problems.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The \u200cBlues have \u2060lost four consecutive games, exiting the Champions League in an 8-2 aggregate humiliation by Paris St Germain and have slumped to sixth in the Premier League.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I think for Enzo it&#8217;s disappointing to speak in that way. What I will say about Enzo is that, in \u200bterms of him \u200bas a person, I&#8217;ve \u2060got no bad words to say,&#8221; Rosenior added.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14794,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-30709","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Fernandez, who has been wearing the captain's armband in the \u200babsence of injured Reece James.","published_date":"","news_description":"Fernandez, who has been wearing the captain's armband in the \u200babsence of injured Reece James.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30710,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30709\/revisions\/30710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}