Chelsea’s Under-21 centre-back Daniel Pappoe is set to join League One side Colchester United on loan after featuring for the club in a pre-season friendly on Friday night.
The 19 year-old, who has suffered a string of long-term injuries in recent years, played the first half of the U’s win against Sudbury and is believed to be close to finalising what is likely to be a six-month stay at the Weston Homes Community Stadium. Manager Joe Dunne is a clear fan of young Premier League talent and showed as much by dipping into many a club’s Under-21 ranks last season for loan improvements.
Archange Nkumu, Sam Walker and Billy Clifford all made the trek up to Colchester from Cobham last season and the Blues have kept a strong relationship with Dunne and his staff, leading to Pappoe being the next in line to don the blue and white stripes.
Pappoe should have featured at this summer’s FIFA Under-20 World Cup as a part of the Ghanaian team which reached the last four, but was unceremoniously dropped from the squad on the eve of the tournament after the technical staff expressed doubts about his ability to remain injury-free.
If confirmed, he would join Clifford, Todd Kane, George Saville and Patrick Bamford in departing Dermot Drummy’s setup on a temporary basis, whilst the more experienced first team fringe players Matej Delac, Marko Marin, Thibaut Courtois, Oriol Romeu, Gael Kakuta and Patrick van Aanholt have all also found new homes for part of or all of the 2013-14 season.