Chelsea are considering whether to make a move for Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, according to The Guardian.

Following the serious knee injury sustained by Wesley Fofana, the Blues have been scouring the market for potential replacements.

Guehi was sold by the London club two years ago for £18m but his value has skyrocketed to £50m during the intervening period.

Chelsea may well have a secret weapon up their sleeve, though, as it is believed that they included a 25% sell-on clause in their agreement with Palace that could knock about £12.5m off the asking price.

Paying £37.5m for an England international who is still only 23 years of age does look like a good piece of business.

There will be rivals for the player

The Guardian claim that both Arsenal and Tottenham are tracking Guehi as well but the two teams are unlikely to make a move for the centre-half at the moment.

While the Gunners have recently recruited Jurrien Timber from Ajax, Spurs are said to have prioritised moves for Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba and Wolfsburg’s Ricky van de Ven.

Guehi is not the only centre-back Chelsea are looking at

Monaoc’s Axel Disasi has been mentioned as a possible target in recent days, while there have been reports that talks with Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard’s agent have taken place.

One of the reasons why the Blues may choose one of these two defenders instead of Guehi is height. It is believed that there are concerns about the lack of tall centre-halves in the squad.

Guehi is 6ft, which is not short by any means, but the likes of Disasi (6ft 3) in particular may be seen as a more attractive option due to his physical attributes.

Chelsea’s recruitment team have yet to settle on their favoured candidate but, with less than a month left before the season kicks off, they will be keen to reinforce the backline sooner rather than later.