Ex-Chelsea defender has contract terminated at club after playing just 25 minutes

Former Premier League defender Tariq Lamptey has had his contract terminated at Serie A side Fiorentina.

Lamptey, who came through Chelsea‘s academy, only played 25 minutes for Fiorentina after his summer arrival from Brighton.

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The 25-year-old departed the Seagulls after five years last September, heading to Italy for an undisclosed fee.

However, things haven’t gone well at all for the right-back.

During his first start as a Fiorentina player, he landed awkwardly and jarred his left knee before trying to play on.

But Lamptey had to be withdrawn after 22 minutes of his full debut, with the Ghana international suffering an ACL rupture.

He had only made a three-minute substitute appearance in Serie A before that and he didn’t play for the club again.

Since picking up the serious knee injury, the defender has missed 234 days and 45 games for Fiorentina.

And the club have now terminated his contract immediately, according to transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano.

It means Lamptey will be a free agent heading into the summer transfer window, which gets started on June 15.

Before his spell in Italy, he had played 122 times for Brighton and three times for Chelsea’s first-team as a youngster.

But after very limited game time this season, he’ll now be on the lookout for his next club to help rebuild his career.

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Lamptey’s injury nightmare

Lamptey’s ACL injury, which has now led to the end of his Fiorentina spell, is just the most recent of a plethora of major issues.

When he left Brighton, the full-back was carrying a knee issue that had kept him out for 123 days in total last season.

He suffered three separate injuries that saw him stay on the sidelines for 14 games for club and country two years ago.

In the 2023/24 campaign, Lamptey spent well over 100 days in the treatment room for another set of multiple problems.

And that followed a serious knee injury in 2022/23, which forced him out of action for another 100-day spell.

That wasn’t even the start for him in the Premier League though, as two hamstring injuries in 2020/21 kick-started his nightmare.

He missed 32 games and 168 days due to those issues.

Lamptey has certainly had a very tough time of things in recent years, with that continuing as his contract was ripped up.