Chelsea to recall Guiu amid Jackson uncertainty

Marc Guiu only joined Sunderland on loan at the beginning of August

Chelsea are in talks to recall striker Marc Guiu from his Sunderland loan spell amid uncertainty around the future of Nicolas Jackson and an injury to Liam Delap.

The Blues previously agreed for Jackson, 24, to have a medical at Bayern Munich for an initial £13m loan move, but opted to withdraw from the agreement, which also included a £56.2m option to buy, after Delap suffered a hamstring injury in the 2-0 win over Fulham on Saturday.

Jackson was asked to return to London but Bayern were also given the option of agreeing a permanent deal instead.

Funds from a sale were to be used on a replacement with Sporting striker Conrad Harder identified as the primary target, but he had already been in advanced talks with German club RB Leipzig and is still expected to move there as now-Manchester United striker Benjamin Sesko's replacement.

Harder, 20, had been offered a lesser squad role at Chelsea compared to at Leipzig.

The alternative solution to recall Guiu, 19, from his loan spell at Sunderland is ongoing and now expected to happen.

Guiu scored one goal in his only start for the Black Cats, having made a further two substitute appearances, having joined Chelsea from Barcelona for £5m in 2024.

Sunderland are now expected to re-enter the market for a replacement.

What are Chelsea's deadline day plans?

There were three scenarios at play amid concerns from manager Enzo Maresca that Delap will be out for "six to eight weeks".

One was signing Harder and selling Jackson at the same time, the second was recalling Guiu and the final option was to bring back Jackson.

However, Jackson's long-term agent Diomansy Kamara has gone public and said: "We are not going back. The plane doesn't go backwards."

Recalling Jackson seems the most difficult of the three options with transfer plans made more complicated by Delap's injury with an already busy 24 hours planned.

The transfer window closes at 19:00 BST on Monday, with Brighton attacker Facundo Buonanotte also expected to join on a season-long loan.

Before the injury to Delap, Chelsea had made an offer for Barcelona forward Fermin Lopez on Saturday, but he appears unlikely to join having played away at Rayo Vallecano in La Liga on Sunday evening.

Chelsea also want to offload their final few 'bomb squad' members in Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Axel Disasi and David Datro Fofana.