Levi Colwill says he feels back to himself after returning to Chelsea’s backline this month, with the defender front and centre in the club’s matchday programme for tonight’s final home game of the season against Tottenham Hotspur.
Colwill, who suffered an ACL injury ahead of the start of the campaign, said his latest run of games at Anfield and Wembley has helped him put the long layoff behind him. “To be honest, I feel normal again,” he said. “I feel free – nothing to complain about.”
For Chelsea, the timing matters. The programme is built around a night that carries its own edge at Stamford Bridge, and Colwill was clear about what that means in a London derby that rarely needs extra heat. “It’s huge. Playing at Stamford Bridge against Tottenham is always electric,” he said.
He also pointed back to last season’s meeting as the benchmark for what this fixture can become. “It was the best game I’ve ever played last year against Tottenham,” Colwill said, a reminder that Chelsea are leaning on a player whose return has come just in time for one of the club’s most familiar pressure points.
His comeback has already been tested in two of the hardest settings in English football. Chelsea said Colwill performed admirably in recent matches at Anfield and Wembley, a useful sign for a defender who only this month resumed a place in the backline after months out through injury. The first steps back, he said, were about instinct rather than caution. “The first time you step back out there to play again you just feel excitement and you always want the ball – like, I just want it!”
The club’s programme gives the evening a broader frame, too. Chelsea marked the 10-year anniversary of the Battle of the Bridge in the same edition, and also included an Over Land and Sea feature on Roberto Di Matteo, Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola, three Italians whose names still sit deep in the club’s memory three decades ago. Chelsea Women head coach Sonia Bompastor also paid tribute to departing legends Millie Bright and Sam Kerr in her final column of the season, while head coach Calum McFarlane and captain Reece James were among the other contributors.
That mix of remembrance, farewell and recovery leaves Colwill’s return as one of the night’s clearest football stories. Chelsea have spent months waiting for him to get back on the pitch; now they are asking him to help steady the side in a fixture that has a habit of exposing whether a team is ready for what comes next.
