Wales manager Ryan Giggs has offered some insight into why Ethan Ampadu was forced to withdraw from his country’s squad for their upcoming games against Trinidad and Tobago and Slovakia.
Ampadu has featured scarcely for Chelsea this term. We all know Maurizio Sarri’s perspective when it comes to young players; he wants to protect them. Ultimately, his treatment is inflicting further damage.
The 18-year-old’s lack of game-time is not the only thing stunting his progression, it also appears as though he’s been struggling with growing pains, hence this recent back problem.
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Giggs, who himself exploded onto the scene as a teenager, is quoted by the London Evening Standard explaining the predicament that Ampadu finds himself in:
“It is frustrating. He’s at that age where it’s in between his age group and the first team. So a lot of the time he’s travelling with the squad.”
“I went through it a little bit, when you don’t play, then you go back to your own age group. It’s just that balancing act because he’s not getting the minutes that lesser players would get because of his quality.”
“He reminds me of Steven Gerrard because he’s still growing. They pick up these little knocks and strains.”
Ampadu is probably too small currently to operate as a centre-back, but it’s easy to forget that the kid is still growing. This is a stark wake-up call of just how young and tender he remains.
He’s so incredibly polished for his age, we’d love to see him settle down in midfield and mould into that role. If he continues to grow even further, though, we could have a Peter Crouch regen on our hands.
