Kenneth Omeruo Sparkles, Ike Ugbo Starts As Chelsea Are Held By Red Devils

Kenneth Omeruo made a rare appearance for Chelsea at any level in their 1-1 draw with EFL League Two club Crawley Town in a pre-season friendly at the Checkatrade.com Stadium on Saturday evening.

Back home, most of the talk leading up to the game was that the former Sunshine Stars defender was going to make his debut for Chelsea, however, the Premier League champions decided to field an under-strength team made up of loanees and U23 players.

Omeruo was named in the starting line-up alongside the prolific England youth-teamer Ike Ugbo, while the third player of Nigerian descent that made the squad list announced on Thursday, Fikayo Tomori, was withdrawn at the last minute.

Fifteen minutes from time, Chelsea took the lead through Charlie Brown, who broke through the Crawley Town defense before firing past the goalkeeper.

Joe McNerney leveled for the Red Devils with a header in the 87th minute.

Kenneth Omeruo and Ike Ugbo are expected to be loaned out (or sold) by Chelsea before the close of the summer transfer window.

Igho Kingsley

Photo Credit : Instagram.com/Omeruo