When Marc Cucurella will return for Chelsea as suspension timeline outlined
In this story:
Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella will miss the team's visit to Charlton Athletic for the FA Cup third round clash on Saturday after receiving a red card in Wednesday's defeat to Fulham.
Cucurella's early dismissal, 22 minutes into the game, played a major role in Chelsea's defeat to local rivals in mid-week.
The Spain international received a straight red card for pulling back Harry Wilson, who was through on goal, and it was deemed a denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO).
DOGSO offences are punished by a one-match ban, and suspensions are served across all domestic competitions.
This means Cucurella will only miss the trip to the Valley on Saturday and will be available to play in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal on Wednesday.
The disappointing defeat to neighbouring rivals aside, this is not such a bad thing.
New Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior would have likely rotated the team and rested Cucurella anyway against Charlton, even if the defender was not suspended.
On the other hand, Cucurella's red card was Chelsea's seventh in all competitions, and their fifth in the Premier League this season.
It highlights the disciplinary issues in this Chelsea side, although Rosenior made it clear that he does not think it is entirely problematic.
Day 1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/KcPmZaxcSY
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 8, 2026
"I think those mistakes, if you want to call it (that), come from passion," the former Strasbourg boss said on Friday when speaking about Chelsea's red card problem.
"The lads want to win. So I don't want to take that out of them at the same time. There's a fine balance between going overboard.
"To win, you can't be nice all the time. You have to have an edge. And I don't want to take that away from the lads."
Gerry Crisandy is a freelance writer who has covered Chelsea for many years. His work has been published on The Chelsea Chronicle and Pride of London. He grew up idolising Michael Ballack and is a firm believer in expected goals.