As Chelsea fell behind to Brighton in the FA Cup, Joao Felix had been hit with a firm reality check at AC Milan. Just hours before the Portugal international's temporary switch to Milan was confirmed, Enzo Maresca saw Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu suffer injuries.

"Marc unfortunately has a bad injury," he said in a press conference. "We are still waiting. It doesn't look a short injury, it looks a long injury. Exactly how long, we don't know. Probably weeks or months. Nico is better. Could be [fit to face Brighton]. It also could be a risk but we'll see. But it doesn't look a long injury."

Jackson ultimately missed out on the trip to the south coast, which saw Christopher Nkunku start up top, but he found it hard to justify Maresca providing him with further minutes going forward. Jadon Sancho, Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto also failed to make an impact and perhaps Chelsea could have done with Felix.

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"I don't think we miss Joao," Maresca admitted when asked if there could be regrets about letting him leave. "Joao is happy there and we are happy Joao is happy there. The only thing I can say is no-one would predict on deadline day we had two strikers injured.

"This is something that is difficult to think. It unfortunately happened but we have Nico to be back very soon." While Maresca does make a good point, it is certainly an interesting decision to loan out a player that had only just been bought for £43million six months ago.

Felix making an immediate impact on his debut in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia against AS Roma also appeared to further show a mistake had been made. Though his side were already in front, Felix added a third after being played through on goal and chipping an effort over the head of Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar.

As a result of his impact, Sergio Conceicao brought him into the starting XI for Saturday's Serie A clash against Empoli, which saw Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic named on the bench. The 25-year-old was unable to repeat what happened on his first appearance, however, with the aforementioned duo coming on to make the difference.

Leao, Pulisic and Santiago Gimenez were all introduced at half time with the trio combining to score both goals. For Milan's opener, it was Pulisic's cross that was headed in by Leao before the former Chelsea star, who joined for £58million back in 2019, assisted Gimenez for the second.

Given the impact made by three players that were all left out of the starting XI, Felix looks set to be facing a huge task to keep his spot. Given the injury problems at Stamford Bridge, along with the inconsistent form of those in his position, Felix could have quite easily got the minutes he was looking for had he stayed in west London.