Former Chelsea starlet Charly Musonda has revealed how he went from being football’s next big thing to being forgotten about at Chelsea for three years.

Musonda was seen as the natural replacement for Eden Hazard after he made his Chelsea debut in 2017 but suffered a serious injury while on loan at Vitesse Arnhem in 2018.

And after it reoccurred early in the next term during a second Vitesse spell, Musonda was forced to undergo a potential career-ending operation.

The now-Levante star says he came close to quitting football after allegedly being left isolated by Chelsea and pals.

Musonda told SportsBible: “It’s something I still think about now. I have lost so much time. You get injuries, they happen. But you never think it’s going to take that much time. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play again.

“Doctors said I was never going to be the same after that day. Basically they said if I have the surgery, then that would probably be the end of my career. That’s what I was told.

“All of a sudden, I wasn’t getting any calls. Nobody is texting you. Nobody is asking where you are. It was a very lonely place.

“It was a very lonely place. I’ve been alone for the last three or four years. I remember when the crutches came off after that first year and I said to myself, ‘Okay, listen, you’re alone, and you have to embrace it.’

“There weren’t a lot of people to talk to. In the four years I was injured, only a few people called me and said, ‘Hey, how’s the injury going?’ In fact, I can count those people on two hands.

“The first year, people were in contact but, as the years went on, fewer and fewer people got in touch. That’s just the way it is. It’s not the fault of anybody. But that can affect people mentally.

“You go from being at Chelsea, where everybody wants something from you, to being forgotten two or three years later.”