Chelsea have agreed a deal for Ben Chilwell to join Crystal Palace on loan.
The 28-year-old defender will now undergo a medical on Monday ahead of completing a proposed move to Selhurst Park for the remainder of the season.
The Athletic reported on February 1 that Palace had expressed an interest in a short-term deal for Chilwell following Chadi Riad’s season-ending injury and Trevoh Chalobah’s return to Chelsea from his own loan move.
Everton have also been credited with interest but are unable to take a second player from Stamford Bridge because they already have Armando Broja from Chelsea for the 2024-25 campaign.
Chilwell had been expected to leave the club since head coach Enzo Maresca said in August that he did not fit in his plans and that it would be “better” for him “to leave and go and get minutes.”
A summer move did not materialise and Chilwell subsequently found himself on the fringes of the squad, with his only Chelsea appearance of the season coming as a substitute in a 5-0 Carabao Cup win over League Two Barrow in September, where he played 45 minutes.
Chilwell joined Chelsea from fellow Premier League side Leicester City in August 2020 for a fee in the region of £50million (now $61.4m). He was a regular under Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel in his first campaign at Stamford Bridge and was part of the side that won the Champions League in 2021.
However, an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in November that year limited Chilwell to only 13 games the following season. Hamstring issues caused him to miss time in the 2022-23 season and much of the first half of 2023-24.
Chilwell has been capped 21 times by the England national team, scoring once.
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