Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has revealed that he hasn’t seen Raheem Sterling or Axel Disasi since the 2025–26 season began, with both players exiled from the first-team squad.
Both players have been registered in Chelsea’s Premier League squad, which was confirmed on Friday, but have seemingly have no prospect of continuing their careers at Stamford Bridge after another intense summer of ins and outs.
Both were linked with Deadline Day moves away but nothing came to fruition—Disasi was reported to be a target for Premier League trio Sunderland, Bournemouth and West Ham United, but nothing came to pass as he hoped former club Monaco would come in with an offer.
Sterling, meanwhile, was linked with Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen in August, but he didn’t want to move away from his family’s London base.
“They are Chelsea players, but at the moment they are training separately and the plan is to continue in this way,” Maresca told reporters of the pair at his latest news conference.
“Since the season started, I haven't seen either of them. I haven't seen Axel or Raheem. They train at a different time and on a different pitch. I haven't seen them since the start of the season.”
Sterling spent the 2024–25 on loan at Arsenal but failed to fire. The 30-year-old played 28 times in all competitions, scoring just once in the Carabao Cup, and his 17 Premier League outings came mostly as a substitute as Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli remained ahead of him in the pecking order.
Disasi was on loan at Aston Villa from January onwards but didn’t do enough to convince Unai Emery to try and make the move permanent. His first season at Chelsea, the 2023–24 campaign, yielded 31 Premier League appearances, but it quickly became apparent when Maresca took over from Mauricio Pochettino that he didn’t see the Frenchman as a part of his plans.
That stance has continued, leaving the pair to be part of the club’s so-called “bomb squad”, and it appears, barring a dramatic U-turn, that both will have a watching brief until at least January.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Haven’t Seen Them’: Enzo Maresca’s Remarkable Admission on Exiled Chelsea Duo.