Chelsea have left the door open for struggling Super Eagles defender Kenneth Omeruo to leave Stamford Bridge this summer after being banished from the Blues’ first team to their youth side.
The Blues snapped up the South Africa 2013 Africa Cup of Nations winner from Standard Liege in January 2012 after he impressed at the Belgian side.
Chelsea loaned the right-back to Dutch outfit ADO Den Haag where he spent 18 months before rejoining the London giants.
As the player failed to make the grade at Chelsea, the Premier League giants sent him out on loan to Middlesbrough in 2015. He later played on loan at Turkish sides Kasimpasa and Alanyaspor, where he plied his trade last season.
The Nigeria 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup silver medallist, who has yet to play any official game for the Blues, said in May playing for the 2012 European champions was no longer his priority – but to play regular first-team football elsewhere.
“It might happen that I get to play for Chelsea but it is no longer my immediate priority,” the 23-year-old, who represented Nigeria at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, was quoted by BBC Sport as saying.
“You have no idea how frustrating it is to always go out on loan.”
Omeruo, who has been omitted from Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s squad scheduled to travel to China on Monday for the side’s pre-season tour of Asia, suffered the indignity of playing with youngsters in the youth team on Saturday, on the same day the first team were hammering Fulham 8-2 in friendly affair.
The defender, whose place is currently under threat at the Eagles, captained a Chelsea team with an average age of 19 that battled to a 1-1 draw with Crawley Town.
Meanwhile, reports on Sunday claimed that Carl Ikeme’s club Wolves were close to signing Omeruo.
According to HITC, the Championship club, who are in dire need of defensive reinforcements, see the Nigerian as a player they can depend on as they aim to return to the English top flight this season.
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